The Contribution of Thumbnail Image, Mouse-over Text and Spatial Location Memory to Web Page Retrieval in 3D

We present an empirical evaluation of the contribution of pictorial image and spatial location information on the retrieval of previously stored web pages. Subjects were given 100 snapshots of web pages that they stored in spatial locations on an inclined plane in a desktop 3D environment (Data Mountain). We had them return and try to retrieve their pages again, using a variety of retrieval cues. Even though users had not seen their web page layout for several months, their retrieval times were not significantly slower. In addition, on half of the trials, stored pages were not presented as thumbnail images of the web pages but as blank icons. Taking the pictorial thumbnail images away initially led to a significant drop in subjects’ ability to find the pages, although within a short period of time subjects were able to find the pages equally fast without the thumbnail information. These results indicate that the use of 3D visualization techniques such as those described in this paper can lead to improved user memory for where favorite or frequently used information is stored in an electronic environment.