Choo, Detlor, and Turnbull: a model for browsing behaviour

26Jun08

In a 2000 paper in First Monday, Choo, Detlor, and Turnbull attempt to outline a schematic classification of user behaviour based on information needs.

Informationally, this schema is based on four identified kinds of information acquisition, and six user behaviours that support these modes.

Choo et al. divide modes of information acquisition into,

 

1. Undirected viewing (more or less self-explanatory: this is ’surfing’)
2. Conditioned viewing (whereby ‘the individual directs viewing to information about selected topics or to certain types of information … The individual has isolated a number of areas of potential concern from undirected viewing, and is now sensitized to assess the significance of developments in those areas’)
3. Informal search (whereby ‘the individual actively looks for information to deepen the knowledge and understanding of a specific issue. It is informal in that it involves a relatively limited and unstructured effort’)
4. Formal search (whereby ‘the individual makes a deliberate or planned effort to obtain specific information or types of information about a particular issue. Search is formal because it is structured according to some pre-established procedure or methodology’ and the information sought is precise and intended to serve some particular, definable purpose, possibly in relation to policy)

The six informational activities are adapted from work by David Ellis. This work was not originally intended to be applied only to the web, and Choo et al. helpfully supply ‘web equivalents’ to the actions described by Ellis

1. Starting (‘identifying sources of interest that could serve as starting points of the search’ = ‘identifying web sites/pages containing or pointing to information of interest’)
2. Chaining (the following of pointers from an initial source’ = ‘Following links on starting pages to other content-related sites’)
3. Browsing (’semi-directed search in areas of potential search’ = ’scanning top-level pages: lists, headings, site maps’)
4. Differentiating (‘the individual filters and selects from among the sources scanned by noticing differences between the nature and quality of the information offered’ = ’selecting useful pages and sites by bookmarking, printing, copying and pasting, etc; choosing differentiated, pre-selected site’)
5. Monitoring (‘keeping abreast of developments in an area by regularly following particular sources’ = ‘receiving site updates using e.g. push agents or profiles’)
6. Extracting (’systematically working through a particular source or sources in order to identify material of interest’ = ’systematically search[ing] a local site to extract information of interest at that site’)

Choo et al. then straightforwardly map these 6 behaviours to the 4 modes, so that Undirected Viewing involves Starting and Chaining Activities; Conditioned Viewing involves Browsing, Differentiating, and Monitoring activities; Informal Search involves Differentiating, Monitoring, and Extracting; and Formal Search uses Monitoring and Extracting activities.

Overall, I’m not sure how useful this kind of categorization is. Although the study is backed up by empirical data, I can’t avoid the feeling that the various classificatory schemes described here predetermine the nature of the data – particularly as the categories seem rather debatable. For instance, I don’t personally ‘cut and paste’ material from a website very often, as I know I’m never going to read it if I do – only if I have some immediate purpose in mind (i.e., I’m well into the ‘Extracting’ phase) am I going to bother. Equally, the age of the paper means that some of the most crucial engagements on the web today – e.g., social bookmarking – aren’t dealt with at all.

Overall, I think I would have appreciated more empirical evidence, and fewer schemata.

 

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Tags: Choo, Designing Web Navigation, Information Acquisition