When Browsing Gets Cluttered: Exploring and Modeling Interactions of Browsing Clutter, Browsing Habits, and Coping

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate browsing clutter, which refers to cluttered experiences of users due to buildup of disorganized browser elements and information. We studied what users experience as clutter, what behaviors and factors contribute to the clutter, and what users do when they experience clutter through an interview study (N = 16) and an online survey study (N = 400). Based on our studies, browsing clutter includes the amount of tabs and windows, content of the web pages and interactive elements, navigation, and search process. We identified sources of browsing clutter from task characteristics, such as importance and complexity, to user habits, such as multitasking and tab closing. To reveal the dynamics of browsing clutter, we modeled how browsing clutter is predicted by specific browsing habits and coping strategies. Our model demonstrates how individual forms of clutter are interrelated and altered by behavior. We discuss how browsing clutter relates to information overload.