GVU's Eigth WWW User Survey Use Graphs

Problems Using the Web

Notes:

While speed is still the number one problem for web users, the percentage of users who report this problem continues to drop slightly from 76% in the Sixth survey a year ago to 66% in the Seventh and 63% in the current survey. We suspect this is because of the continuing rise in average connection speed. The problem of broken links is growing, however, being cited by 50% in the last survey compared to 60% in the current survey. Finding information along with organizing what is found continue to be problems for many users. Cost, feeling lost, and the inability to visualize web sites don't seem to be an issue for most users. Slightly fewer females than males cite speed as a problem, but more females complain about broken links. Younger users in general cite more problems using the web than older users, but those over age 50 are slightly more inclined to feel lost in hyperspace. Expert users complain more about speed (71%) and organizing information (31%) while novices have more trouble finding information they know is out there (38%) and revisiting web sites (22%). Novices are also more likely to feel lost in hyperspace (12%) and to be interested in visualization (13%).

Table of Data for All Categories

Problems Using the Web

All

Male

USA

50+

Intermediate

Broken Links

59.65%

57.23%

63.95%

60.20%

62.17%

64.27%

65.09%

59.12%

54.16%

55.51%

61.46%

62.17%

Cost

6.04%

6.84%

4.52%

4.55%

4.89%

9.42%

7.66%

5.43%

3.70%

6.13%

6.71%

4.89%

Find Known Info

32.32%

31.35%

33.68%

32.31%

28.98%

50.69%

36.49%

29.42%

31.15%

37.85%

29.70%

28.98%

Find new info

49.52%

49.06%

50.31%

48.86%

49.76%

58.45%

53.40%

48.24%

45.66%

48.16%

50.52%

49.76%

Lost

6.36%

5.20%

8.16%

6.54%

2.74%

4.99%

3.55%

6.12%

9.24%

11.53%

4.38%

2.74%

25.28%

25.92%

24.21%

24.37%

31.48%

26.04%

25.83%

26.14%

21.53%

19.52%

25.68%

31.48%

9.53%

10.03%

8.70%

9.89%

8.85%

11.63%

9.79%

8.87%

9.80%

11.83%

8.07%

8.85%

17.76%

16.65%

19.73%

18.10%

15.59%

29.92%

18.56%

15.86%

18.85%

21.84%

15.88%

15.59%

62.82%

65.40%

58.54%

60.77%

70.82%

65.93%

68.40%

63.93%

53.51%

50.65%

67.58%

70.82%

Visualization

8.81%

8.30%

9.50%

8.81%

5.82%

8.31%

7.66%

8.40%

10.72%

13.18%

7.07%

5.82%

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