ABSTRACT

The paper presents an approach to introduce heuristics based on facts and phenomena from cognitive science in the design of web-based interface systems. The interface to the user employs a web-document genre classifier, inspired by the "word-length and word-frequency" effect. The result is faster and efficient document search, classification and retrieval. The paper discusses the encountered insights like least-effort strategy in user assessment of web documents, the implicit user expectation for interaction with "intelligent" interface, as well as the increasing demand for document summaries. Some interface design guidelines, falling out from the current study, are outlined.

KEYWORDS: cognitive modelling, web-based interface design