Transcript Bradford`s Formula Itself

Information Architecture & Design
• Week 6 Schedule
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Browsing and Searching for IA
Other Readings
Research Topic Presentations
Class Work (if time)
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”
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.
2.
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.
2.
3.
Search engines
Magazines & newsletters
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
IA Model Checklist
Starting
Undirected
Viewing
Conditioned
Viewing
Informal
Search
Formal
Search
Chaining
Browsing
Differentiating
Monitoring
Extracting
Design Recommendations for IA
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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 experts
Formal search: extracting
- Use multiple info sources for comprehensive searching
- Show users how to use advanced search techniques
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)2
• 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?
• Provide Navigation Support
• Work with the Back Button – Don’t Break its Functionality
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 Indicators
- Buttons
- Bookmarks - Titles
- URLs
• History Use
- List - Titles
- Menu (Go or Window)
• 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
• Redundancy in Design
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Graphics
Links
Page Titles
Button Names
Topic & Heading Titles
• Users Should Immediately Understand Where
They are and Where to Go
Instone’s Navigation Stress Test
- Random Page is Chosen
- Find the Chosen Page in Relation to Site
• Hierarchy (Where in the site?)
• Purpose
- What is it doing on this site?
- Is this the main task of the site?
• Interface
- How can I get back to the chosen page?
- How can I understand it in relation to other pages?
• Graphics (Who is the page for?)
- 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 should be Complement in
Design?
• Good Search Makes Up For Bad IA?
• Search and Browse Percentages?
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New Users (to Site)
New Users (to Web)
Advanced Users
Who Will Need What Functionality?
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 on the Page
• Individual Pages
• Search Results
- Repetition from other Sites
Break!
• Presentations – 20 minutes each
• Class Work
Class Work – What’s your Site?
• Sketch out your site
• Explain to your neighbor
• Free form commentary
Next Week
• Metaphors, Graphics and Labels
• Presentations
- Keep to 20 minutes
- No need to email me for comments
• Design Critiques Due next week
- At beginning of class
Next Week’s Class Work – Labels
- Bring 4 copies of a sheet of the terms you are
considering for your site
- Space the terms out enough for comments and
circling
• Titles
• Links
• Headings
• Frequent Terms
• Navigation Bar(s)
• Metaphor Terms