Breadcrumbs : Finding related information
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Submitted by
kef.
on 2007-11-05 10:36.
I heard a brief talk by Angela Colter (UPA-DC 2007) on a study of breadcrumb usage. The researchers wanted to know how people think of them, and how they use them.
Three types of breadcrumbs:
- Location model – single breadcrumb path to any resource
- Path model – shows exactly how this user got to the page
- Attribute model -- gives metadata information (categories, subcategories) – this model is used by Amazon and results in multiple breadcrumbs paths showing on a single page.
Results:
- Users describe breadcrumbs as paths, but think of them as locations.
- Novice users are very likely to use them, and understand they are links.
- Most commonly used to find something related. While heading back to the search box the user trips over the breadcrumbs and see that something in the breadcrumb trail might be useful.
Breadcrumb problems:
- If the breadcrumb link label is named something different than the page you get to that is a problem and users never use the crumbs again if that happens to them. (In this study)
