Website navigation: the effects of spatial cues on searching behavior

The aim of this study was to improve website navigation by reducing\ud disorientation and cognitive overload. From the basis of recent findings in grounded\ud cognition and embodied cognition, we developed two website navigation modalities\ud designed to enhance ego-centered mental simulations of movement. Two forms of spatial\ud cues were used for this purpose: spatial consistency and animations of movement. The\ud performance of two groups of undergraduate college students on a searching task using\ud these two website modalities were compared with the performance obtained by a third\ud group using a traditional hyperlink modality. We found that the addition of spatial cues\ud improved navigation in its efficiency and accuracy, and allowed participants to use more\ud network navigation (vs. hierarchical navigation). We conclude that mental simulations of\ud physical interaction can be stimulated by a navigation modality, which benefits\ud navigation. However, we also found that when participants explored the website in a consecutive second session using the same navigation modality, the improvement of\ud performance of participants was better in the hyperlink modality. We conclude that the\ud addition of spatial cues, while easing navigation, can also hinder learning.CSU, Chic