Shuan Lo — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:21:58 GMT

Thank you for the interesting article. I’m new to the field, and these are new concepts to me.

After reading this article, I’m wondering if it is possible to classify information seeking behavior according to two facets: 1) precise-vague, 2) aware-unaware.

Specific meaning the user knows exactly what he or she wants to look for; such as tomorrow’s weather in Taipei. An example of vague could be “how is it like to live in Taipei”.

In terms of design parameters, maybe the precise-vague axis maps crudely to a search-browse axis.

I’m not sure what the aware-unaware axis can map to. Maybe a passive-active axis? A passive feature would be like my browser’s record of my history and Google’s Desktop Search. Passive in the sense that the user initiates the use of these to seek for information. An active feature would be like showing related news headlines beside a news article. Active in the sense that information is being pushed to the user.

Perhaps an active-search feature could be my Firefox’s Google Suggest extension, and an active-browse feature could be a list of “most viewed”?

I’m not sure if these make any sense.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Shuan Lo