The first part of the thesis focuses on Information Foraging Theory which was developed by Peter Pirolli, a cognitive scientist from Intelligent Systems Lab at Palo Alto Research Center, to understand how human search in an information environment (Pirolli 1995). The theory builds upon the optimal foraging theory in behavioral ecology, which assumes that people adapt and optimize their information seeking behavior to maximize the success of accomplishing the task goals by selectively choosing paths based on the expected utility from the information cues. The expected utility in Information Foraging Theory is called Information Scent. The second part is to design and build a new way to visualize search engine results in a graphical way that incorporates the concept of information scent to make search experience more efficient for users. The end result of the project will be an improved visualization of search results, obtained by using Google’s Application programming interface (API), latent semantic analysis, and data visualization methods to present a semantics-based visualization of the search results. The proposed design is developed to increase information scent for relevant results and shorten the foraging path to reach the search goal by presenting users with fewer but more valuable proximal cues, thus making search a more human-centered experience.

Traceability is defined as the ability to establish, record, and maintain dependency relations among various software artifacts in a software system, in both a forwards and backwards direction, throughout the multiple phases of the project’s life cycle. The availability of traceability information has been proven vital to several software engineering activities such as program comprehension, impact analysis, feature location, software reuse, and verification and validation (V&V). The research on automated software traceability has noticeably advanced in the past few years. Various methodologies and tools have been proposed in the literature to provide automatic support for establishing and maintaining traceability information in software systems. This movement is motivated by the increasing attention traceability has been receiving as a critical element of any rigorous software development process. However, despite these major advances, traceability implementation and use is still not pervasive in industry. In particular, traceability tools are still far from achieving performance levels that are adequate for practical applications. Such low levels of accuracy require software engineers working with traceability tools to spend a considerable amount of their time verifying the generated traceability information, a process that is often described as tedious, exhaustive, and error-prone. Motivated by these observations, and building upon a growing body of work in this area, in this dissertation we explore several research directions related to enhancing the performance of automated tracing tools and techniques. In particular, our work addresses several issues related to the various aspects of the IR-based automated tracing process, including trace link retrieval, performance enhancement, and the role of the human in the process. Our main objective is to achieve performance levels, in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and usability, that are adequate for practical applications, and ultimately to accomplish a successful technology transfer from research to industry.

The U.S. Intelligence Community is undergoing an "Analytic Transformation" designed to improve the quality of intelligence analysis. Information foraging theory, a human analogue to foraging theory that finds humans to be time- and risk-sensitive information seekers, is particularly relevant to this effort because it addresses two basic challenges that continually confront intelligence analysts: information overload and severe time constraints. The present investigation marks the first empirical foray into testing a theory of intelligence foraging. Two experiments using computer simulations tested the effects of temporal barriers on expert (intelligence analysts) and novice (undergraduates) search, consumption, and patch residence behaviors across three fictional databases (i.e., patch) containing information on the cause of a battleship explosion. The original hypotheses were not confirmed; handling time and travel time manipulations (in the form of different download delays associated with each database) did not significantly affect their database navigation patterns or their assessment of the battleship explosion. Unexpectedly, the specific content of each patch appeared to control their search and consumption behavior rather than the handling or travel time associated with each patch; the content effect mimicked the delay effect that was initially predicted. In the face of high stakes and realistic information constraints, the present study hints at an evolved information forager - one who is still content-driven in spite of severe time constraints. In light of the present findings and in service to our national security interests, future research would benefit from a deeper dive into information foraging situations with these new types of constraints. / Psychology

Major research studies have provided support for information scent based usability evaluation and have increased its parent theory's (Information Foraging theory) credibility in the HCI community. These studies have, directly and indirectly, found significant correlations between good information scent and good usability. We would like to investigate its application to less-studied platforms, such as web pages on PDAs and cell phones. The theory itself is not device specific and it implicitly assumes that information scent's importance is universal. However, all studies on the practical application of Information Foraging theory have been conducted with desktop computers. We would like to examine what role information scent plays in interfaces on mobile devices that are limited in usable screen space. For this project, we performed a controlled study with 28 participants on the BBC News web site and its PDA-optimized version. Various usability and information scent related indicators were measured and compared across devices. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find any statistically significant differences between the information scent indicators of the Desktop and PDA sessions and the paths across the devices were highly correlated. / Master of Science

<p>Företag som bedriver handel via nätet på sajter som inriktar sig mot privatpersoner satsar idag mycket på att utvecklas för att på bästa sätt stödja kunden mot sitt mål. Dock har företag som inriktar sig mot andra företag (B2B-business to business) inte hängt med i samma utsträckning. Den här rapporten syftade till att undersöka hur man kan arbeta för att ta fram ett designförslag på en B2B-sajt, närmare bestämt vilka metoder och teorier man kan dra nytta av. Metoder och teorier som har använts är effektkartläggning, Coopers målinriktade designmetod, Nielsens designprinciper för användbarhet och information foraging. Arbetet resulterade i en prototyp kring vilken en diskussion fördes följt av slutsatsen att valet av metoder och teorier tycks vara en lämplig kombination vid utveckling av B2B-sajter men att ytterligare forskning krävs för att skapa en enhetlig metod.</p>

<p>Detta arbete har utförts i samarbete med företaget <em>Compute</em> och fokuserar på att utveckla navigationsstöd för webbportaler med bokningssystem. Arbetet har delats upp i tre specifika mål: (1) integrera <em>Information Foraging Theory</em> (IFT) och <em>Graphical User Interface principles</em> (GUI-principer) genom att applicera dessa vid utvecklng av navigation för webbportaler med bokningssystem (2) konkretisera hur navigering kan förbättras på en webbportal med bokningssystem, utifrån ovanstående teroier och (3) arbetet skall resultera i en lista med rekommendationer som kan tillämpas vid utveckling av navigation. För att kunna  integrera IFT och GUI-principer har dessa i kombination med en teroertisk studie tillämpats vid prototyping. Prototyperna användes som verktyg för att konkretisera hur navigationen kunde förbättras på portalen. Prototyperna utvärderades och resulterade i en lista med rekommendationer. Resultaten från utvärderingen påvisade att en integrering av GUI-principer och IFT kan förbättra nvigationsförhållanden på en webbportal. Arbetes främsta bidrag är listan med rekommendationer som skall kunna tillämpas vid navigationsutveckling.</p><p> </p>

This dissertation sought to explain goal achievement at limited traffic “long tail” Web sites using Information Foraging Theory (IFT). The central thesis of IFT is that individuals are driven by a metaphorical sense of smell that guides them through patches of information in their environment. An information patch is an area of the search environment with similar information. Information scent is the driving force behind why a person makes a navigational selection amongst a group of competing options. As foragers are assumed to be rational, scent is a mechanism by which to reduce search costs by increasing the accuracy on which option leads to the information of value. IFT was originally developed to be used in a “production rule” environment, where a user would perform an action when the conditions of a rule were met. However, the use of IFT in clickstream research required conceptualizing the ideas of information scent and patches in a non-production rule environment. To meet such an end this dissertation asked three research questions regarding (1) how to learn information patches, (2) how to learn trails of scent, and finally (3) how to combine both concepts to create a Clickstream Model of Information Foraging (CMIF). The learning of patches and trails were accomplished by using contrast sets, which distinguished between individuals who achieved a goal or not. A user- and site-centric version of the CMIF, which extended and operationalized IFT, presented and evaluated hypotheses. The user-centric version had four hypotheses and examined product purchasing behavior from panel data, whereas the site-centric version had nine hypotheses and predicted contact form submission using data from a Web hosting company. In general, the results show that patches and trails exist on several Web sites, and the majority of hypotheses were supported in each version of the CMIF. This dissertation contributed to the literature by providing a theoretically-grounded model which tested and extended IFT; introducing a methodology for learning patches and trails; detailing a methodology for preprocessing clickstream data for long tail Web sites; and focusing on traditionally under-studied long tail Web sites.

Detta arbete har utförts i samarbete med företaget Compute och fokuserar på att utveckla navigationsstöd för webbportaler med bokningssystem. Arbetet har delats upp i tre specifika mål: (1) integrera Information Foraging Theory (IFT) och Graphical User Interface principles (GUI-principer) genom att applicera dessa vid utvecklng av navigation för webbportaler med bokningssystem (2) konkretisera hur navigering kan förbättras på en webbportal med bokningssystem, utifrån ovanstående teroier och (3) arbetet skall resultera i en lista med rekommendationer som kan tillämpas vid utveckling av navigation. För att kunna  integrera IFT och GUI-principer har dessa i kombination med en teroertisk studie tillämpats vid prototyping. Prototyperna användes som verktyg för att konkretisera hur navigationen kunde förbättras på portalen. Prototyperna utvärderades och resulterade i en lista med rekommendationer. Resultaten från utvärderingen påvisade att en integrering av GUI-principer och IFT kan förbättra nvigationsförhållanden på en webbportal. Arbetes främsta bidrag är listan med rekommendationer som skall kunna tillämpas vid navigationsutveckling.

Människan är nyfiken och vill finna ny information på webbplatser. Detta kan underlättas med hjälp av virtuella doftspår som användaren följer. Denna rapport är en fördjupning i hur människan går tillväga för att följa virtuella doftspår och hur man som designer ska använda sig av detta när man utvecklar en webbplats. Genom teorierna information foraging och användbarhet har en användbarhetsmodell och en operationalisering tagits fram för att underlätta detta. Tillsammans med datainsamling genom intervjuer och metoderna heuristisk utvärdering och high fidelity har studien visat att när man skapar ett gränssnitt för användare behövs information foraging som bestämmer eller lämnar förslag på hur virtuella doftspår påverkar användaren.

No description available.