Proposing Web Design Enhancements based on Specific Cognitive Factors: An Empirical Evaluation Panagiotis Germanakos Department of Management and MIS University of Nicosia Nicosia, Cyprus pgerman@cs.ucy.ac.cy Nikos Tsianos, Zacharias Lekkas, Constantinos Mourlas Faculty of Communication and Media Studies University of Athens Athens, Greece {ntsianos,mourlas}@media.uoa.gr Mario Belk, George Samaras Department of Computer Science University of Cyprus Nicosia, Cyprus {belk,cssamara}@cs.ucy.ac.cy Abstract—The research that is described in this paper focuses on incorporating theories of individual differences in information processing within the context of generic Hypertext and Hypermedia Environments. The main objective of this paper is to introduce a framework for the automatic reconstruction of Web content based on human factors. It is supported that human factors may be used in order to enhance the design of generic hypertext (or hypermedia) content in a measurable and meaningful way. A Web Browser extension set of custom xml tags has been therefore developed in order for the browser to recognize and implement these set of tags for the imminent transformation and enhancement of Web content. An increase on users’ satisfaction as well as more efficient information processing (both in terms of accuracy and task completion time), has been observed in the personalized condition than the original one. Consequently, it is supported that human factors may be used in order to enhance the design of generic hypertext (or hypermedia) content in a measurable and meaningful way. Keywords-human factors; cognitive styles; smart web objects; web personalization; web adaptation I. INTRODUCTION Finding and presenting information on the World Wide Web (WWW) has become a challenging and urgent problem [6]. The vast number of Websites makes it hard, or indeed impossible, to find the appropriate site [7]. Similarly, the growing size and complexity of Websites makes it very difficult to locate information within specific Web-pages. This problem of finding and presenting information in a site has become an important area of research, with several solutions currently being pursued. Web adaptation and personalization techniques and paradigms are employed in order to alleviate such problems by presenting information based on the needs and preferences of users, by dynamically adapting the user’s view according to the task at hand. Furthermore, since the WWW is by definition a huge resource of information, it would make much sense that individuals’ information processing characteristics should be taken into consideration. To that direction, our efforts are focused on improving the effectiveness of Websites by employing methods of personalization. As part of our previous research, it has been demonstrated that the incorporation of human information processing factors in eLearning environments leads to better comprehension on behalf of the users [5]. Based on this experimental evaluation, our next step was to apply such individual differences theories in a context other than educational, namely the Web in general and the imminent hypertext/hypermedia content that is composed. From such a wide perspective that emphasizes on information processing and not strictly learning, the constructs of cognitive style and working memory were opted for as personalization parameters, considering that their effect in the case of our eLearning experiments was highly significant. Moreover, these factors address the issue of processing in a wider than the educational area, while the corresponding implications are viable for implementation on the Web. As a result, we developed a Web Browser extension set of custom xml tags, as design enhancements and content transformation in generic hypertext environments, based on the incorporation and mapping of these human factors with the information space, in order to optimize the effectiveness of information distribution in the Web. The expected outcome can be summarized in the increase of the levels of efficiency and satisfaction of the users by facilitating information comprehension and retaining. This filtering of the Web-content ultimately aims to match individuals’ preferences and abilities in a measurable way, possibly proving that Web designers should also focus on individual differences in cognitive factors. II. BACKGROUND THEORY Riding and Cheema’s Cognitive Style Analysis (CSA) has been used as a very representative theory of cognitive (not learning) style; additionally, the two independent scales of the CSA (Verbal/Imager and Wholist/Analyst) correspond ideally to the structure of hypertext environments. A personalized environment that is supported by an automated mechanism can be altered mainly at the levels of content selection and hypermedia structure; the content is essentially either visual or verbal (or auditory), while the manipulation of links can lead to a more analytic and segmented structure, or to a more holistic and cohesive environment. These are actually the differences in the preferences of individuals that belong to each dimension of the CSA scales [10]. The concept of working memory [2] also fits very well into our rationale of personalizing Websites on the basis of