Transcript Browsing and Searching

Information Architecture & Design
• Week 6 Schedule
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Group Project Plan Due
Browsing and Searching for IA
Other Readings
Research Topic Presentations
• Gilok, Choi: Markup Languages
• Hutchens, Chad: Toolbars & Navigation Bars
• Parsiale, Veronica: Privacy Policy
Browsing and Searching
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Information Seeking
Using Models
Understanding Navigation
Designing Navigation
What Is Information Seeking?
• “a process in which humans purposefully engage in
order to change their state of knowledge.” p. 5
• “a process driven by human’s need for information
so that they can interact with the environment.” p.
28
• “begins with recognition and acceptance of the
problem and continues until the problem is
resolved or abandoned” p. 49
Marchionini
• more than just representation, storage and
systematic retrieval
Information Seeking in Context
Learning
Information Seeking
Information Retrieval
Analytical
Strategy
Browsing
Strategy
Search Strategies
• Analytical
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careful planning
recall of query terms
iterative query reformulations
examination of results
batched
• Browsing
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heuristic
opportunistic
recognizing relevant information
interactive (as can be)
Study Findings
• Few participants deliberately set out to
search for new sites
• Determined the modes of scanning and
moves exercised by the participants
• Recurring Web behavioral patterns that
relate people’s browser actions (Web
moves) to their browsing/searching
context (Web modes)
• Modes of scanning: Aguilar (1967) & Weick
& Daft (1983, 1984)
• Moves in information seeking behavior:
Ellis (1989) & Ellis et. al. (1993, 1997)
Modes of Scanning
Scanning
Modes
Undirected
Viewing
Conditioned
Viewing
Information Need
Information Use
General areas of
interest;
specific need to be
revealed
Serendipitous
discovery
Able to recognize
topics of interest
Increase
understanding
Amount of
Targeted
Effort
Number
of
Sources
Minimal
Many
“Sensing”
Tactics
• Scan broadly a diversity of
sources, taking advantage
of what’s easily accessible
• “Touring”
Low
Few
“Sensemaking”
• Browse in pre-selected
sources on pre-specified
topics of interest
• “Tracking”
Informal
Search
Able to formulate
queries
Increase
knowledge within
narrow limits
Medium
Few
“Learning”
• Search is focused on an
issue or event, but a goodenough search is
satisfactory
• “Satisficing”
Formal
Search
Able to specify
targets
Formal use of
information for
planning, acting
“Deciding”
High
Many
• Systematic gathering of
information on a target,
following some method or
procedure
• “Retrieving”
Information Seeking Behaviors & Web
Moves
Integrated Modes & Moves Model
Undirected
Viewing
Conditioned
Viewing
Informal
Search
Formal
Search
Starting
Chaining
Identifying
selecting
starting
pages, sites
Following
links on
initial
pages
Browsing
Browsing
entry
pages,
headings,
site maps
Differentiating
Monitoring
Extracting
Bookmarking, Revisiting
printing,
‘favorite’ or
copying
bookmarked
sites for new
Going directly information
to known site
Bookmarking, Revisiting
printing,
‘favorite’ or
copying
bookmarked
sites for new
Going directly information
to known site
Using
(local)
search
engines to
extract
information
Revisiting
‘favorite’ or
bookmarked
sites for new
info
Using
search
engines to
extract
information
Behavioral Model of Web Use
Starting
Undirected
Viewing
Chaining
Browsing
Differentiating
Monitoring
Extracting
12 Episodes
Conditioned
Viewing
Informal
Search
Formal
Search
• 61 identifiable episodes
• Confirmed in Interviews
18 Episodes
23 Episodes
8 Episodes
Interview Highlights
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Most useful work-related sites:
1.
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3.
4.
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Resource sites by associations & user groups
News sites
Company sites
Search engines
Most people do not avidly search for new Web
sites
Criteria to bookmark a site is largely based on a
site’s ability to provide relevant & up-to-date
information
Methods for identifying new Web sites:
1. Search engines
2. Magazines & newsletters
3. Other people/colleagues
Behavioral Model Highlights
• People who use the Web engage in 4
complementary modes of information
seeking
• Certain browser based actions & events
indicate a particular mode of information
seeking
• Surprises
- No Explicit Instances of Monitoring to Support Formal
Searching
- Very Few Instances of “Push” Monitoring
- Extracting Involved Basic Search Strategies Only
Fill in the Blanks
Starting
Undirected
Viewing
Conditioned
Viewing
Informal
Search
Formal
Search
Chaining
Browsing
Differentiating
Monitoring
Extracting
Design Recommendations for IA
• Undirected viewing: starting and
chaining
- Introduce systems that search/recommend jump sites
- Design portals (home pages) to support undirected,
serendipitous viewing
• Conditioned viewing: browsing, differentiating
monitoring
- Train users to evaluate and escalate priority or importance of
info
- Provide ways of telling users about new content on Web pages
• Informal search: differentiating monitoring,
extracting
- Pre-select sources & search engines for quick, informal
searches
- Prepackage search strategies developed by subject matter
Tauscher & Greenberg (1997)
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Mostly Re-Visits (58%)
Continually Visit New Pages
Access Only A Few Pages Frequently
Clusters (Sets) & Short Paths of URLs
- Frequency
- Recency
- “Distance”
• Types of Navigation
- Hub and Spoke
- Depth Searching (lots of links before returning, if
at all)
- Guided Tour (Tasks)
Tauscher & Greenberg (1997) pt2
• Back Button Use Affects Everything (Even
More Since Study)
• Navigation Methods Differ
• Reasons for Revisiting
- Explore Further
- Use Feature (Search or Home Page)
- “On the Way” to another Page (IA Problem)
• Users Don’t Understand Browser History
Very Well or Do They Misunderstand
Page/Site Navigation?
Maglio & Barrett (1996)
• What Do People Do When They
Search?
- Cognition
- Mental Maps
- Mental Models (Task Conceptualization)
• Build Agents Through Understanding
• IA Take Advantage of Understanding
• Small Dataset with Specific Searches
Maglio & Barrett (1996) pt 2
• Participants Conceptualize Searching as Standard
Routines
- Misremembered Searches
- Favorite Search Sites
• Participants Remember Only Key Nodes From a
Search
- Pages as Waypoints (Landmarks)
- Page Elements
• Bad News for IA?
- Predictable Use (Patterns Can Be Perfected in Testing)
- Imperfect Memory (Use New Mnemonics – Graphics & Text)
- Leverage Waypoints (Easier to Find Again and Use)
Navigation Systems & IA
• Layout
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Global Navigation (Toolbars or Nav bars)
Local Navigation (Sidebars or Link Sets)
Content Navigation (Intra Site Links?)
Relational Navigation (Inter Site Links?)
• Mechanisms
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Toolbars, Nav bars, Sidebars
Menus, Interactivity (Javascript, Flash, +)
Sitemaps (Indexes (A-Z), Task, Guides or Content)
Lists (Big and Small, Broad and Focused)
Graphics (Logos, ImageMaps, Dynamic Data)
Text (Descriptive, Prescriptive, Content)
• Too Much vs. Too Little (of any combination)
Navigation & Browser (no IA?)
• Browser Interfaces
- Buttons
- Bookmarks
- URLs
• History
- List
- Menu
• Visualization
• Why Browse When You Can Search?
- Memorize URLs vs. “Google it”
- “Social Navigation” (Wear Paths & Popularity)
- Your Behaviors and Results Sets
• Personalization
Navigation and Use
• The Best Design is not Always the Most Usable
• Instone’s Navigation Stress Test
- Random Page
- Find Page in Relation to Site
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Hierarchy (Where?)
Purpose (What?)
Interface (How?)
Graphics (~Who?)
- Decide Where Page Links To
• Associated Pages
• Part of a Content Unit
• Part of a Task
Search Systems & IA
• Rosenfeld – Don’t Build-in Search?
• Search vs. Browse?
• Conflict in Design to Complement in
Design?
• Good Search Makes Up For Bad IA?
• Search and Browse Percentages?
- New Users (to Site)
- New Users (to Web)
- Advanced Users
Designing Search Systems
• Indexing
- Markup Languages & Other Attributes
- Metadata
- Content (All, Some, New, Newer?)
• Functionality
- Boolean
- Augment with Context
- Personalization (Simple to Complex)
• Interface (p 149-175)
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Search Boxes, Buttons & “Query Builders”
Sorting and Ranking & Hierarchy (Metadata)
Results (Abstracting, Gisting(ML), Selection, Keywords)
Functions (More Like This, None Like This,
Browsing & Searching (Now)
• Should Users Always Know Where They
Are?
• Should Users Always Understand Searching
(Terms, Operators and Depth)?
• How Can You Leverage Conventions to
Make Browsing Easier?
- Combinations of Elements
- Hierarchies
- Classification
• How Can IA Augment Basic Searching?
- Context
- Repetition