A proposed integrated environment for enhanced user interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents: An empirical evaluation

This article investigates the potentialities of a proposed information environment (PROPIE) for user interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents (e‐documents). The design of PROPIE was based on a thorough review of user needs and requirements in interacting with information through well‐documented findings, and a focus group with 12 participants to identify features that were deemed desirable in future interactions. The design was also based on a review of developments in various user interface (UI) technologies, visualization, and interactive techniques, and a consideration of new forms of information structuring and organization that pose important implications for the design of more advanced UIs. To this end, a set of interface mockups was developed to demonstrate the potential of the environment in supporting the design of a new generation of electronic journals (e‐journals). An empirical evaluation of various aspects of the environment was conducted to obtain representative users' feedback with regard to interacting with e‐journals. Twenty‐two participants from a variety of academic background took part in the evaluation. This article reports the results that have general implications for the design of e‐documents.