The aim of this research was to see whether a conceptual framework could be developed that would help conduct: • studies of people's interaction with information; • user requirements analysis for information services and systems. The following questions were addressed: • could the accumulated past research in user studies and information seeking behaviour now provide a good basis for the development of a conceptual framework for understanding people's interaction with data, information and knowledge and • whether a conceptual framework could be developed that: ~ indicated those factors that influence the individual's interaction with information ~ indicated and helped explain those factors that influence each other and the individual's experience when interacting with information and information systems ~ helped to derive data that enabled the researcher to identify user requirements for an infonnation system that relates to their needs and also whether: • the conceptual framework would help to identify an appropriate research methodology and techniques for studying people and determining their requirements for information services and systems? As a result of the research a framework, that encompassed earlier models and frameworks, was developed. The framework evolved through an inductive analysis of the literature and was then applied to two communities. This led to modification of the framework. The resulting framework, and the levels of analysis that were considered significant, identified categories of data that were important and indicated the relationships between these variables. The communities were postgraduate students and informal carers. Insights were generated into the information experience of the two conununities and their requirements for an infonnation service. With regard to methodology and techniques it was concluded that, although the framework did help to identify the data that one can collect, many techniques, such as observation or task analysis can be applied and are likely to vary, depending on the research context. However certain techniques were shown to be more effective than others for gathering different types of data, such as behvioural or psychological.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:565885 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Hepworth, Mark |
| Publisher | University of Sheffield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/12878/ |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds