Evaluating Adaptive Navigation Support

From the few evaluations of adaptive navigation systems that have been performed, we see an emerging pattern where, depending on the domain, only certain types of adaptive navigation strategies work. The results indicate that adaptations should leave the interface somewhat predictable, they should not force users to interpret advanced annotations, and finally, the adaptation should not change the structure of the information space. Furthermore, evaluations of adaptive navigation support systems fail to recognise some of the more important aspects of why certain systems provide better support than others do. These studies typically measure task completion time, or how well the structure of the space is remembered. While these are among the important measurements that should be taken, other features, such as how much anxiety the system induces in users, how pleasant it is to navigate, or how much users actually learn of the information contained in the space, might be more crucial measurements.