Information Architecture & Design Week 6 Schedule - Browsing and Searching for IA - Other Readings - Research Topic Presentations - Class Work (if time)

Browsing and Searching 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 careful planning recall of query terms iterative query reformulations examination of results batched Browsing 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

Web Moves

Integrated Modes & Moves Model

Behavioral Model of Web Use 61 identifiable episodes Confirmed in Interviews

Interview Highlights Most useful work-related sites: 1.Resource sites by associations & user groups 2.News sites 3.Company sites 4.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

IA Model Checklist

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 experts Formal search: extracting - Use multiple info sources for comprehensive searching - Show users how to use advanced search techniques

Tauscher & Greenberg (1997) 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 - Global Navigation (Toolbars or Nav bars) - Local Navigation (Sidebars or Link Sets) - Content Navigation (Intra Site Links?) - Relational Navigation (Inter Site Links?) Mechanisms - 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 - 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? - 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 ) - 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 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