Problems Using the Web

---

Notes:

• For this question, users were asked which of the following problems they encountered when using the Web: not being able to find a page I know is out there ("find info"), not being able to determine where I am ("lost in htext"), not being able to organize well the pages & information I gather ("organize"), not being able to find a page I once visited ("return"), it takes too long to view/download pages ("speed"), not being able to visualize where I have been and where I can go ("visualize"), and it costs too much ("cost"). Users were allowed to mark more than one answer.

• As was found in the fourth survey, the most common problems are: speed (80.9%), organizing retrieved information (33.6%), and finding information (32.4%). Speed is even more of a problem than in the last survey (69.1% fourth), even though respondents are reporting higher modem speeds. See Speed of Connection.

• The least reported problems are: getting lost in hypertext (5.4%) and the cost (9.2%).

• About twice as many Europeans as US respondents reported that cost was a problem.

---

---

Notes:

• The only notable difference between genders was the problem of finding information: 28.8% of males, and 40.0% of females reported this problem.

---

---

Notes:

• More younger users than older users reported finding and organizing information and returning to previously visited sites to be a problem.

---

---

Table of Data for All Categories

problem.cost	All	Male	Female	USA	Europe	19-25	26-50	50+
cost	608 9.19%	380 9.20%	146 8.47%	340 7.72%	85 14.41%	132 10.15%	292 8.10%	30 5.96%
find	2144 32.39%	1189 28.79%	682 39.56%	1392 31.61%	177 30.00%	469 36.05%	1076 29.85%	144 28.63%
lost	355 5.36%	145 3.51%	146 8.47%	221 5.02%	22 3.73%	54 4.15%	160 4.44%	35 6.96%
organize	2222 33.57%	1434 34.72%	549 31.84%	1499 34.04%	195 33.05%	471 36.20%	1241 34.42%	143 28.43%
return	883 13.34%	506 12.25%	270 15.66%	567 12.88%	88 14.92%	208 15.99%	422 11.71%	61 12.13%
speed	5355 80.90%	3398 82.28%	1354 78.54%	3509 79.70%	499 84.58%	1050 80.71%	2932 81.33%	400 79.52%
viz	735 11.10%	407 9.85%	225 13.05%	465 10.56%	69 11.69%	137 10.53%	372 10.32%	57 11.33%

---

For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.

GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280