Two main levels in describing hypermedia use can be distinguished. At a global level, the general purpose can be described in terms of learning or problem solving. At a more local level, specific goals can be described in terms of the learners' activity with the system, i.e. the visiting of one or more information nodes. In this paper, the influence of the nature of these local goals on performance variables such as recall, precision, and economy of hypermedia use are investigated. Specific characteristics of the situation, such as the organisation of the information, the type of questions answered, and the type of users are also taken into account. Data coming from two studies are presented, one on information about the profession of a psychiatrist and the other on learning about the topic of energy in physics. The conclusions relate to the potential role that interaction variables can play in the study of hypermedia use.