Research has studied information seeking behaviour and several models have been developed. Those models were further modified following the emergence of the web. At the beginning of the 2000s, research started focusing on the concept of a user task instead of an activity or a simple action. The studies conducted were aimed to categorize the user activities into high level tasks. Investigating the tasks identified is anticipated to assist with developing tools and applications that would help the user to accomplish those tasks.
After categorizing the user information seeking activities into high-level tasks, research continued to investigate changes in the frequencies of the tasks identified. Changes in the user behaviour that accompanied the evolution of the web and its applications have been targeted for improving how users interact with tools intended for accomplishing user activities. However, there has been little emphasis on studying the high-level tasks identified in the case of the web. Even though those tasks differ substantially, users have been using the same web browsing model to accomplish most of the activities under each type of task.
The research discussed in this dissertation is concerned with studying the task of information gathering which is also known as the informational task. This task was selected due to: 1) its high frequency on the web (between 48% and 61.25% of the overall tasks users perform); 2) its complexity and the ambiguity associated with the kind of activities that comprise the task; 3) the need for using multiple applications for accomplishing the requirements of this type of task; and 4) the necessity for collecting different types of data from different sources for satisfying the task requirements.
The current state in research related to information gathering identifies this task based on a simple description of the user activities that distinguishes information gathering from other kinds of tasks. The research discussed in this dissertation: 1) provides a thorough definition of the task, 2) models its underlying subtasks (sets of related activities), and 3) investigates difficulties and issues associated with each subtask. The investigations lead to design recommendations that resulted in building specific features to be examined during information gathering tasks. The research concluded by providing final recommendations based on the findings which resulted from investigating those features.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:NSHD.ca#10222/21421 |
| Date | 13 March 2013 |
| Creators | Alhenshiri, Anwar |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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