The below pages from wikipedia, i came across these whilst looking into online research methods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Ethnography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_research_method
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web-based_experiments
This research investigates the effectiveness of applying cognitive load theory in navigation design. The focus is around work flow task driven websites such as the interaction performed when using database driven web applications.