Dear Colleagues, This is a reminder about the IT&Society Journal special issue on web navigation skills in December 2002. Submissions are due on September 30, 2002. Please help us to distribute this call for contributions. We apologize for any cross-postings. Melody Y. Ivory Assistant Professor, Information School University of Washington ============================================== Call for Contributions (Due September 30, 2002) IT&Society: An Online Journal http://itandsociety.org/ Special Issue Number 3: Web Navigation Skills Planned release: December 20, 2002 Guest Editors: Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland; Jonathan Lazar, Towson University; Melody Ivory, University of Washington We invite you to contribute your current research findings on user issues in web navigation to the third issue of the online journal IT&Society. This journal's central mission is to study, analyze, and recommend ways to improve the societal benefits of modern information and communications technologies. This special issue we focuses on use of the World Wide Web. We anticipate studies showing successes or failures of diverse demographic groups in accomplishing common tasks. Papers that report experimental results, research reviews, case studies, and theoretical frameworks are welcome. We seek short summary reports (1000-2000 words) as well as longer original research reports (up to 6000 words and 10 figures), with proper references and links. We anticipate publishing a total of 12-15 papers. Broad themes for the Special Issue include: finding information on personal health, family needs, community resources, job training, shopping, professional purposes; sensemaking from sources for national politics, international news; following threaded discussions in online communities, understanding knowledge sources for health support, wayfinding in distance education courses. Some possible topics: - Information architectures and different structures for effective navigation - Layout, color, and map design issues in navigation - Search engine design to support navigation - Digital Divide issues, accessibility and navigation - Navigational support in browsers - Navigation for special user populations: mature adults, low motivation users, or poor readers - User alienation and frustration from disorientation - Navigational issues for intranets and extranets - Navigation in e-commerce and e-government services - Navigation of online help/tutorials, - Server log file analysis to understand user navigation patterns - Clickstream data analysis and visualization methods Timeline: September 30, 2002 - Submissions due October 30, 2002 - Notification November 30, 2002 - Revised papers due December 20, 2002 - Papers available on the web Submission format: Please post papers in HTML format and send the URL to Jonathan Lazar at [log in to unmask] or send the paper as MS-Word or RTF format to Jonathan Lazar. Reviewing: Each submitter agrees to review three other submissions and provide comments by October 24. Editors will decide which papers are accepted, and request revisions to be made by November 30. Further revisions may be requested, with the goal of releasing the issue on December 20, 2002. ----------------- ----------------- Melody Y. Ivory Assistant Professor, The Information School Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington Box 352840 330C Mary Gates Hall Seattle, WA 98195-2840 ph: 206-616-6110 fax: 206-616-3152 email: [log in to unmask]