A new model of information seeking stopping behavior

textWeb search engines play an important role in peoples daily life. Widespread usage of search engine poses continuous challenges for designing information search systems that can bring people best user experience. To address this challenges, it is particularly important to understand how people seek information. In spite of a large number of studies on human information seeking, the reasons of when and why users terminate information seeking are uncertain and many proposed theories have a limited capability for predicting this type of behavior. In our study, we conducted lab-based experiments, where participants performed assigned information search tasks on Wikipedia pages. Inspired by theories and methods from cognitive science, we captured participants information search behavior such as query usage, search engine result page visits, Wikipedia page visits, and task duration. Additionally, we used eye-tracking techniques to examine the number of people's eye fixations. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), we have confirmed exploratory and validation processes can be distinguished based on different types of costs associated with each of them. Based on the findings of the regression tree model, evaluating the cost and gain in the validation process provide important feedback to people for controlling and monitoring their information search.Informatio

The relationship between task complexity, working memory and information search

In recent years, there has been growing interest in better understanding human actors in human information seeking behavior studies. Although a number of studies have been conducted to explore users’ individual differences in search behavior, there have been few studies taking both a theoretical and empirical approach to the relationship between users’ cognitive ability, task complexity and search interactions. The study presented in this paper evaluated the effect of task complexity and working memory in human information searching behavior. Twenty-four participants from a non-college-bound adolescents sample (ages 18-50+) performed two search tasks of varying levels of complexity and were administered measures of working memory. ANOVA tests revealed three important trends: (1) task complexity had a significant main effect on users’ perceptions about the task (i.e., temporal demand and level of satisfaction with time spent on the task), (2) working memory capacity had a significant main effect on users’ search behavior (i.e., queries, clicks, time until 1st click and time between search activities), and (3) a significant interaction effect was found for several search interaction measures (i.e., queries, clicks and time between search activities) and perceived level of temporal demand. Specifically, participants with high working memory capacity carried out more search activities at a faster pace and experienced less temporal workload. Taken together, these results suggest that task complexity and working memory capacity can have effects on users’ search behavior as well as their perceptions about the search experience.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Web Content Management System and accessibility awareness: A comparative study of novice users and accessibility outcomes

Since its creation, the Web has progressively developed and become a vital source of information in every domain and for almost all people. It is crucial to guarantee that the information contained on the Web is available for everyone, especially for people with special needs. Removing accessibility barriers is fundamentally based on tools, skills and support of all contributors, particularly the content creators, to ensure information is navigable and usable in the context of the end users experience. Web Content Management Systems play a significant role in structuring, storing and provision content to the Web and have evolved to address the difficulties of manually coding web pages versus the convenience of manipulating their content without any programing skills. Web Content Management Systems have gradually evolved to contain features and functions that allow content authors to shape their content in ways that address web content accessibility expectations, though only if the content author knows how to use these features to maximum effect. This thesis explores such usage by participants deemed to be novices, in that they have limited technical skills in the context of web coding and have limited expose to Web Content Management Systems or the application/awareness of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). This research places an emphasis on the outcome of these novice users when provided with some basic training and awareness raising of WCAG principles and the use of a modern Web Content Management System. This is explored in the literature as an area of some importance as organisations with significant web presence cannot simply tell their content authors to ‘oh, and make sure it is accessible’ and hope that the end product will somehow achieve that goal without an investment in some form of accessibility education. For web managers and developers in all public sector organisations. “Make sure that all content commissioners and authors are fully trained in the importance of accessible content, and in the means that are made available for them to achieve this . (p. 58) The purpose of this research was to explore to what level the use of accessible Web Content Management System and novice users’ training impacted accessibility outcomes. This study emerged from the widespread role that Web Content Management Systems play in terms of storing and managing web content and the growing usage of these systems by experts or novices at an organisational or personal level. Through a selection process, this study identified a Web Content Management System that had a number of accessibility features, developed some training and ‘awareness raising’ materials and then asked novice users across two groups to apply what they had learned in order to develop an accessible website. The goal of the study was to ascertain if the two groups performed differently according to the training and awareness raising materials they received, and if even basic accessibility outcomes were achievable with just a few hours of training and from what was essentially an accessibility ‘cold start’. The study used a mixed methods approach encompassing three research methods; experimental method, survey method and observational method, to compare qualitative and quantitative data obtained from ‘accessibility awareness’ and ‘accessibility unaware’ participant groups. Thirty university students participated in this research and received accessibility awareness raising sessions, with additional accessibility-related examples for the accessibility awareness group. All participants undertook pre and post-tests that were designed to collect data allowing the researcher to compare the learning performance before and after the participants’ awareness session. At the end of the awareness session, the participants of both groups completed a survey which was designed to provide further data on the participant’s perception of web use and experience, the concept of web accessibility, web content accessibility guidelines, the system used, and their opinion of the accessibility awareness session. Data collected from the survey, pre and post-tests and the recording provided a holistic set of data from which the primary and supporting research questions were addressed. The results of the research indicated that the accessibility awareness group demonstrated measurably better accessibility outcomes than the unawareness group; these results being attributed to the awareness training session, participants’ searching behaviour, time spent on tasks, and effort made to implement accessible features and complete the required tasks. The participants in both groups had some prior knowledge in the use of the Web but limited or no skills in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) or the use of a Web Content Management System. While performing tasks, the participants in the awareness group attempted to apply the accessibility concepts learnt during the training session and spent more time in searching those concepts on the Web in order to provide accessible web page content. Conversely, most of the participants in the unawareness group were concerned by the “look” of the web page, rather than focusing on actual accessible content; they only mimicked the exemplar website they have been provided as an ‘end product’, but did not explore the how and why of accessible content. All the participants at the end of this study were aware of the significance of web accessibility and were favourable to consider it in any future website development they may be involved in. The outcome of the study shows that the use of accessible Web Content Management System with example-based accessibility awareness sessions can lead to improved accessibility outcomes for novice web content authors. This research strongly suggests that even small, focussed and example-based training/awareness raising session can drive an accessibility mindset in web content authors, even those with limited or no technical, accessibility or web authoring experience

LOAN ME THE MONEY: HOW COGNITIVE ABILITIES AND FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE INFLUENCE CONSUMERS’ INFORMATION BEHAVIORS

For most people, financial well-being depends on the ability to make sound decisions about many aspects of personal finance. This is especially true in the United States (U.S.), when it comes to consumer loan products such as mortgages and student loans. Consumers who lack strong financial knowledge can unwittingly expose themselves to bad information when searching online. Without understanding people’s searching behaviors, information professionals cannot know whether personal finance-related information systems adequately meet the needs of the people using them. Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR) is well-suited to study this, yet there has been little research in this area. One approach that makes sense for studying debt-related information searching is to investigate the role individual differences play in people’s searching. This is because individual differences are testable constructs that can be associated with differences in search performance outcomes. The purpose of this dissertation research is to understand influences that cognitive abilities and financial knowledge have on outcomes related to search, assessment, and mental workload of adults searching online for debt-related personal finance information. A theoretical model is proposed in which financial knowledge acts as a moderating variable on the effect that cognitive abilities have on search and evaluation behaviors as well as mental workload. The results of the study were mixed. The testing of hypotheses on the model were unsuccessful and provide information for informing future model designs and hypothesis development. The qualitative portion of the study provided numerous insights, including that the topic of personal finance, specifically in the realm of financial loans such as mortgages, student loans, and payday loans, is more challenging for people than they realize. Participants reported low prior knowledge of all task topics and used simple search strategies such as avoiding advertisements on search engine results pages (SERPs), relying heavily on the first SERP result, and reformulating queries rather than investigating SERPs at deeper levels. Participants rated most webpages they found as relevant or very relevant but expert assessors rated most of those same pages as only somewhat relevant or not relevant. The findings have numerous implications and point to key areas for further research.Doctor of Philosoph