The Browsing Performance Differences among Users with Different Cognitive Styles and Experiences: Case study of Shopping Websites

To compare the browsing performance of users with different cognitive styles and experiences while searching shopping websites.
This is an applied research using quantitative content analysis to collect data from the transaction log files. The population consisted of all bachelor students of Shiraz University, 90 of which participated.
A significant difference was seen between experienced and novice users’ browsing performance, where experienced users spent less time and earned more success than the novice ones. There were no significant correlation between users’ cognitive styles and their browsing performance, but cognitive style and experience together indicated some difference, where verbal-novice users spent more time doing the tasks than verbal-experienced users.
Verbal-novice users need more help and attention in web browsing and it should be considered during the design and training of interactive information systems.