A predictive tool to simulate human visual search behavior would help interface designers inform and validate their design. Such a tool would benefit from a semantic component that would help predict search behavior even in the absence of exact textual matches between goal and target. This paper discusses a comparison of three semantic systems--LSA, WordNet and PMI-IR--to evaluate their performance in predicting the link that people would select given an information goal and a webpage. PMI-IR best predicted human performance as observed in a user study. Categories & Subject Descriptors: H.5.2 User Interfaces ? evaluation/methodology, graphical user interfaces (GUI), screen design; H.5.4
Ishwinder Kaur, Anthony J. Hornof