Article Idea:
The 4 types of information seeking behaviours - and how to design for them
suggested by Donna Maurer on 2005/12/08
I see 4 different types of information seeking behaviours:
- known item – when you know exactly what you want, know where to look and how to describe it
- exploratory – where you have a broad idea of what you want, not sure where to start, may not be able to describe it
- don’t know what you don’t need to know – people often are looking for one thing, but needing another
- revisiting – returning to something found before
In designing an information-rich environment, it is critical to understand which of these likely behaviours are most important to your users and then design mechanisms for them.
This article would elaborate on the behaviours and provide guidance and ideas on IA structures and mechanisms for each.
Want to see this idea turned into a story?
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Donna Maurer
165 Reputation points
Posted 2005/12/08 @ 16:22PM with
I have no idea why two of these are stuckthrough (and I can’t figure out how to fix it) – I intend on including them ;)
David Heller
2 Reputation points
Posted 2005/12/12 @ 06:58AM with
HI Donna, this is interesting, but if focuses on the before you get to the information … What about the after? You could easily talk about how information is part of a flow of some type whereby what you do w/ it in the total context of that flow is as relevant as what I think I’m reading in your example its relationship to the user, ignoring the greater context of the flow.
Donna Maurer
165 Reputation points
Posted 2005/12/13 @ 14:10PM with
It will cover the afters as well. ‘Exploratory’ & ‘revisiting’ definitely go beyond initial findability and this is one of the key aspects of designing for them.