Impact of the Depth of Menu Organization on User's prediction and......

This research aims to investigate users’ views about the number of phases which users should go through to access information on library Websites; It attempts to investigate the depth of menu organization (or hierarchical structure of items) from the main page (Home) to related pages according to the principles of predictability and accessibility. 10 university library websites were examined by 30 MS and PhD students from different fields of sciences except library and information sciences. Based on a semi-structured questionnaire, they were interviewed during their navigation sessions and their opinions were recorded and analyzed. Results show that any increase in the depth of menu would have adverse impact on predictability and would increase the time spent to find items. We also found that more layers in the menus would lead to mis-categorization in the structure of Websites; it means that depth of menu would have adverse impact on predictability if these items do not use self-descriptive and understandable labels.