Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce Google Analytics as a format suitable for advanced tracking of reading behavior within web books, set the metrics for measuring the reading behavior of web books and describe the first results of a pilot study. This paper offers suggestions for further deployment of web books and web analytics in digital libraries and evaluating web books' performance. Design/methodology/approach: To understand the reading behavior of web book users, researchers use quantitative research methods based on custom and advanced metrics at Google Analytics. Findings: Google Analytics is a valuable tool for tracking access to individual books and tracking entire web book collections, mainly if researchers use the combination of unique custom and advanced metrics. A pilot study with 190 users uncovered significant results on reading behavior, for example, the strong preference for scrolling over navigation buttons. Research limitations/implications: This pilot study is limited to measuring two web books and 190 users. This study demonstrated a workable setup of metrics for measuring reading behavior; it would be helpful to continue measurement with a larger sample of books and users. Originality/value: Researchers in library and information science currently use web analytics mainly to understand user behavior on the website and in the catalog. This paper presents the possibilities of deploying Google Analytics directly in web books to understand reading behavior.

Introduction. This study proposes a replicable framework to detect, code, and visualise information uncertainty during hospital wayfinding across digital and physical touchpoints, treating wayfinding as a distributed information behaviour. Method. A seven-stage patient journey model (pre-arrival to exit) structures data collection. The unit of analysis is a stage-bounded interaction with a touchpoint. Analysis. Events are coded with a codebook. Coded units are aggregated into a Stage–Touchpoint–Uncertainty matrix and transformed into heatmaps and patient journeys that display uncertainty peaks. Results. The framework operationalises uncertainty with observable, time-stamped indicators and supports triangulation. Conclusion. Journey-based, behaviour-proximal coding makes information uncertainty measurable and comparable across sites. The approach enables evidence-based prioritisation of wayfinding interventions while accommodating variability in hospital contexts and patient needs.

BACKGROUND Hospital wayfinding is a well-documented source of patient stress, yet people with sensory, cognitive, or mobility-related needs face additional information barriers that generic wayfinding research rarely resolves. Information uncertainty, rather than a simple lack of signage, has recently been proposed as a unifying construct for locating and diagnosing these barriers across the patient journey. OBJECTIVE This study empirically applied a Stage-Touchpoint-Uncertainty coding framework across two structurally contrasting hospitals to identify the elements that constitute information uncertainty during hospital navigation, how these elements are perceived and prioritized by patients with specific needs, and how the resulting uncertainty peaks can inform the prioritization of wayfinding interventions. METHODS We conducted a qualitative, multi-method study combining four rounds of data collection between May 2024 and July 2025 at two university hospitals differing in scale and spatial organization (Hospital A: more than 1,000 beds, decentralized multi-pavilion campus; Hospital B: 890-bed comprehensive center with a historic core). Methods comprised expert accessibility walkthroughs, website accessibility and usability testing with severely visually impaired users, user walkthroughs with mobile eye-tracking and think-aloud protocols, and focus groups homogeneous by impairment type (hearing, developmental or learning, mobility, elderly) evaluating candidate signage designs. In total, 40 participants took part, with a mean age of 38.9 years (range 21-75). RESULTS Observations were coded into a Stage-Touchpoint-Uncertainty matrix across five consolidated journey stages. We coded 451 stage-touchpoint events (Pre-arrival, n=40; Entry, n=59; En-route, n=241; Destination interface, n=84; Exit, n=27). Four cross-stage uncertainty mechanisms emerged: absence, equivocality, perceptual degradation, and cognitive-translation demand. Absence-based uncertainty concentrated in the digital Pre-arrival and physical Entry stages, while equivocality dominated the En-route, Destination, and Exit stages and was the single most frequent mechanism overall. Priorities diverged by impairment group: participants with visual impairment prioritized digital retrievability, the developmental/learning group prioritized redundant multi-channel coding, and the physical/mobility group prioritized functional-eligibility information. CONCLUSIONS Information uncertainty in hospital wayfinding is best characterized along two axes, journey stage and underlying mechanism, which together support stage-specific, mechanism-differentiated intervention design that is generalizable beyond the two hospitals studied, while prioritizing breakdowns corroborated across sources and impairment groups.

This paper presents the design and formative evaluation of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) lesson prototypes conducted within immersive virtual environments (IVEs) and reports qualitative insights derived from this Research through Design (RtD) prototype evaluation study. The research involved the development and formative evaluation of prototype lessons grounded in pedagogical expertise and contemporary principles of IVE-based education. The findings identify features, tools, and platform functionalities that were perceived by expert participants as relevant to lesson feasibility, user experience, and prototype refinement, and that informed the design of a collaborative educational IVE. Conducted within a broader research project on education in immersive virtual spaces, the study employed a role reversal methodology in which four experienced EFL educators participated as learners. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed with attention to both the instructional design of the lessons and the operational characteristics of the IVE technology. A Research through Design (RtD) approach was used to iteratively refine the lesson prototypes. The results emphasize the need for systematic formative evaluation and practical testing of IVE-based educational tools before claims about pedagogical effectiveness can be made. Rather than providing generalizable evidence of pedagogical efficacy or policy-level recommendations, the study offers formative design insights, expert reflections, and directions for prototype refinement in EFL-oriented IVE instruction.