In this work we study how people navigate the information network of Wikipedia and investigate (i) free-form navigation by studying all clicks within the English Wikipedia over an entire month and (ii) goal-directed Wikipedia navigation by analyzing wikigames, where users are challenged to retrieve articles by following links. To study how the organization of Wikipedia articles in terms of layout and links affects navigation behavior, we first investigate the characteristics of the structural organization and of hyperlinks in Wikipedia and then evaluate link selection models based on article structure and other potential influences in navigation, such as the generality of an article's topic. In free-form Wikipedia navigation, covering all Wikipedia usage scenarios, we find that click choices can be best modeled by a bias towards article structure, such as a tendency to click links located in the lead section. For the goal-directed navigation of wikigames, our findings confirm the zoom-out and the homing-in phases identified by previous work, where users are guided by generality at first and textual similarity to the target later. However, our interpretation of the link selection models accentuates that article structure is the best explanation for the navigation paths in all except these initial and final stages. Overall, we find evidence that users more frequently click on links that are located close to the top of an article. The structure of Wikipedia articles, which places links to more general concepts near the top, supports navigation by allowing users to quickly find the better-connected articles that facilitate navigation. Our results highlight the importance of article structure and link position in Wikipedia navigation and suggest that better organization of information can help make information networks more navigable.

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维基百科文章的结构如何影响用户导航

在这项工作中，我们研究人们如何浏览维基百科的信息网络，并调查 (i) 通过研究整个月内英语维基百科内的所有点击来调查自由形式的导航，以及 (ii) 通过分析维基游戏来调查目标导向的维基百科导航，用户所在的位置挑战通过以下链接检索文章。为了研究维基百科文章在布局和链接方面的组织如何影响导航行为，我们首先研究维基百科中结构组织和超链接的特征，然后根据文章结构和导航中的其他潜在影响评估链接选择模型，例如作为文章主题的一般性。在自由形式的维基百科导航中，涵盖所有维基百科使用场景，我们发现可以通过偏向文章结构来最好地模拟点击选择，例如点击位于引导部分的链接的倾向。对于维基游戏的目标导向导航，我们的研究结果证实了之前工作所确定的缩小和归位阶段，其中用户首先受一般性指导，然后与目标的文本相似性指导。然而，我们对链接选择模型的解释强调了文章结构是对导航路径的最佳解释，除了这些初始和最后阶段。总的来说，我们发现有证据表明用户更频繁地点击靠近文章顶部的链接。维基百科文章的结构，将指向更一般概念的链接放在靠近顶部的位置，通过允许用户快速找到便于导航的更好连接的文章来支持导航。我们的结果强调了维基百科导航中文章结构和链接位置的重要性，并表明更好的信息组织有助于使信息网络更易于导航。