Effects of Menu Organization and Visibility on Web Navigation for People with Dyslexia

Abstract

People with dyslexia have reported difficulties with navigating websites, yet very little research has investigated the nature of these difficulties. This study investigated the effects of two aspects of web navigation, menu organization and visibility on the eye gaze behaviour, performance and preferences of dyslexic and non-dyslexic participants. Participants undertook four tasks on a website with either unified or fragmented main menu organization and either static or dynamic submenus. Dyslexic participants had significantly longer menu scanpaths (i.e. looked at more menu items), due to looking at more different menu items and revisiting more items in comparison to non-dyslexic participants. They also had more fixations and longer dwell times on submenus than non-dyslexic participants. They were also slower to select their first menu item and complete tasks. However, the perceptions of the different menu presentations did not differ between the two participant groups, although all participants preferred the unified menu presentation to the fragmented. Directions for further research to deepen the understanding and implications of these results are discussed.