Exploring User Navigation during Online Health Information Seeking.

Graham L, Tse T, Keselman A

AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:299-303

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Abstract:

Understanding online user behavior is essential for designing user-friendly consumer health Web sites. Transaction log analysis (TLA) provides a way to extract aggregate data about online behavior. This paper describes prevalent user navigation trends using TLA methods at ClinicalTrials.gov. Preliminary results suggest that users typically access low-level pages directly from Web-based search engines and consumer health sites/portals. A pilot user study is presented to illustrate a complementary research method that might be integrated with TLA to provide a multidimensional view of online health information-seeking behavior. Implications of the observed navigation behavior on the design of consumer health Web sites from TLA and users studies are discussed.

Graham L, Tse T, Keselman A. Exploring User Navigation during Online Health Information Seeking. 
AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2006:299-303

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