LDoW-PaN: Linked Data on the Web—Presentation and Navigation

This work aimed to propose LDoW-PaN, a Linked Data presentation and navigation model focused on the average user. The LDoW-PaN model is an extension of the Dexter Hypertext Reference Model. Through the LDoW-PaN model, ordinary people—who have no experience with technologies that involve the Linked Data environment—can interact with the Web of Data (RDF) more closely related to how they interact with the Web of Documents (HTML). To evaluate the proposal, some tools were developed, including the following: (i) a Web Service, which implements the lower-level layers of the LDoW-PaN model; (ii) a client-side script library, which implements the presentation and navigation layer; and (iii) a browser extension, which uses these tools to provide Linked Data presentation and navigation to users browsing the Web. The browser extension was developed using user interface approaches that are well known, well accepted, and evaluated by the Web research community, such as faceted navigation and presentation through tooltips. Therefore, the prototype evaluation included: usability evaluation through two classical techniques; computational complexity measures; and an analysis of the performance of the operations provided by the proposed model.