Antecedents and Learning Outcomes of Online News Engagement

User engagement (UE) is a quality of user experience characterized by the depth of an actor’s cognitive, temporal and/or emotional investment in an interaction with a digital system. Currently more art than science, UE has gained theoretical and methodological traction over the past decade, yet there is still a need to establish empirical links between UE and desired outcomes (e.g., learning, behavior change), and to understand the myriad user, system, contextual, etc. factors that predict successful digital engagement. This paper focuses on the relationship between UE and media format as a potential antecedent, and the outcome of learning, operationalized as short-term knowledge retention. Participants interacted with two human-interest stories in one of four media formats: video, audio, narrative text, or transcriptstyle text; short-term knowledge retention was measured using post-task multiple choice and short-answer questions. It was anticipated that format would have a strong effect on UE, and that more engaged users would recall more information about the stories. However, these hypotheses were not fully supported, and the nature of the relationship between UE and learning was more nuanced than expected. This research has implications for the design of information systems and, more fundamentally, the impetus to make digital environments engaging.Arts, Faculty ofiSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies)ReviewedFacult

Weaving the Threads of Experience into Human Information Interaction (HII): Probing User Experience (UX) for New Directions in Information Behaviour

Information behaviour has evolved to focus on the dynamic human information interactions (HII) between systems and users, to develop models that encompass user behaviour, cognition, and affect, and to understand the ways in which context and tasks motivate information needs and shape information seeking and use. In recent years, User Experience (UX) has gained prominence in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and may provide further enrichment and new directions in the design and development of HII theories, methodologies, systems and services. This chapter is to provide an overview of UX, and to explore the intersection between HII and UX, specifically with respect to the shared emphasis on context, needs, and sense making. The overarching aim is to provide new directions for information behaviour by proposing that we view HII through a UX lens as we strive to holistically conceptualize, evaluate and design for human information experiences. Taking a UX approach allows us to imagine information interactions as rich and varied narratives, and to explore information seeking and use as processes within, and outcomes and predictors of human experiences.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofUnreviewedFacult

Serendipity as user engagement.

Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofUnreviewedFacult

New Directions in Third Wave Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 2: Methodologies

This chapter provides an overview of methodological approaches and current work in the evaluation of user engagement (UE). Using a series of propositions about the nature of engagement, I review a selection of recent research that utilizes varied methodological approaches to study UE in various human-computer interaction settings. The propositions and the reviewed literature are used to propose a methodological framework to guide decision making and reflection regarding how UE will be evaluated in a given context. The chapter concludes with reflections on broader issues related to how researchers’ methodological stances influence the evaluation of UE. Overall, the chapter argues that UE should be measured using a thoughtful mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, considering the particulars of the use context, and balancing established and emerging subjective and objective metrics.Arts, Faculty ofiSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies)UnreviewedFacult

Is There a Role for Physiological Methods in the Evaluation of Human-Information Interaction?

In human-information interaction (HII) we are facing new research challenges as we attempt to look more holistically at the relationship between people, technologies, and information objects. These challenges revolve around understanding how the interaction process changes over time and evaluating emotional responses during interaction. The use of physiological measures is becoming prevalent in human-computer interaction (HCI) research to detect emotional responses during technology use and to design responsive computer devices. In this paper, we explore the collection, analysis and interpretation of physiological measures through the research literature and our own experience of employing them in a research study, with the overarching question, “What is the potential for physiological measures in the study of HII?Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedWinner of the ALISE/Dialog Methodology Paper Competition, Association of Library and Information Science Education, January 2012.FacultyGraduat

A Task-based Approach to Mobile Information Interactions

In this paper we examine current representations and classifications of mobile information interactions. We propose a task-based approach to unify and guide future work of mobile information retrieval.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedFacultyPostdoctora

Measuring the User Engagement Process

Engagement is a quality of user experience that facilitates more enriching interactions with computer applications. It is defined by a core set of attributes: aesthetic appeal, novelty, involvement, focused attention, perceived usability, and endurability. The ability to engage users influences the products they purchase (e.g. cell phones), the websites they use, and the decisions they make regarding what they will use in future and what they will recommend to others. Engagement is clearly an important component of the user experience, but like other components, it is somewhat intangible, and therefore difficult to measure and evaluate. This workshop paper outlines previous research that has focused on the evaluation of engagement as an outcome of experience. We propose that focusing on measuring the process of engagement is a crucial direction for future research. In order to assess whether or not users are engaged while using an application and what aspects of the system engage them, we must employ mixed methodologies to capture the cognitive, affective, and behavioural components of the experience. But which methods are most appropriate, and how can they be used in concert? Addressing these questions will allow us to understand the nature of engagement and inform design.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedFacult

The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement in e-commerce environments

Facilitating engaging user experiences is essential in the design of interactive systems. To accomplish this, it is necessary to understand the composition of this construct and how to evaluate it. Building on previous work that posited a theory of engagement and identified a core set of attributes that operationalized this construct, we constructed and evaluated a multidimensional scale to measure user engagement. In this paper we describe the development of the scale, as well as two large-scale studies (N=440 and N=802) that were undertaken to assess its reliability and validity in online shopping environments. In the first we used Reliability Analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis to identify six attributes of engagement: Perceived Usability, Aesthetics, Focused Attention, Felt Involvement, Novelty, and Endurability. In the second we tested the validity of and relationships among those attributes using Structural Equation Modeling. The result of this research is a multidimensional scale that may be used to test the engagement of software applications. In addition, findings indicate that attributes of engagement are highly intertwined, a complex interplay of user-system interaction variables. Notably, Perceived Usability played a mediating role in the relationship between Endurability and Novelty, Aesthetics, Felt Involvement, and Focused Attention.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedFacult

Examining the Generalizability of the User Engagement Scale (UES) in Exploratory Search

The user experience is an integral component of interactive information retrieval (IIR). However, there is a twofold problem in its measurement. Firstly, while many IIR studies have relied on a single dimension of user feedback, that of satisfaction, experience is a much more complex concept. IIR in general, and exploratory search more specifically, are dynamic, multifaceted experiences that evoke pragmatic and hedonic needs, expectations, and outcomes that are not adequately captured by user satisfaction. Secondly, questionnaires, which are typically the means in which user’s attitudes and perceptions are measured, are not typically subjected to rigorous reliability and validity testing. To address these issues, we administered the multidimensional User Engagement Scale (UES) in an exploratory search environment to assess users’ perceptions of the Perceived Usability (PUs), Aesthetics (AE), Novelty (NO), Felt Involvement (FI), Focused Attention (FA), and Endurability (EN) aspects of the experience. In a typical laboratory-style study, 381 participants performed three relatively complex search tasks using a novel search interface, and responded to the UES immediately upon completion. We used Principal Axis Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression to examine the factor structure of UES items and the relationships amongst factors. Results showed that three of the six sub-scales (PUs, AE, FA) were stable, while NO, FI and EN merged to form a single factor. We discuss recommendations for revising and validating the UES in light of these findings.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofNon UBCUnreviewedFacult

What is user engagement? A conceptual framework for defining user engagement with technology

The purpose of this article is to critically deconstruct the term engagement as it applies to peoples’ experiences with technology. Through an extensive, critical multidisciplinary literature review and exploratory study of users of Web searching, online shopping, Webcasting, and gaming applications, we conceptually and operationally defined engagement. Building on past research, we conducted semistructured interviews with the users of four applications to explore their perception of being engaged with the technology. Results indicate that engagement is a process comprised of four distinct stages: point of engagement, period of sustained engagement, disengagement, and reengagement. Furthermore, the process is characterized by attributes of engagement that pertain to the user, the system, and user-system interaction. We also found evidence of the factors that contribute to nonengagement. Emerging from this research is a definition of engagement— a term not defined consistently in past work—as a quality of user experience characterized by attributes of challenge, positive affect, endurability, aesthetic and sensory appeal, attention, feedback, variety/novelty, interactivity, and perceived user control. This exploratory work provides the foundation for future work to test the conceptual model in various application areas, and to develop methods to measure engaging user experiences.Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedFacult