The (scalable) power to heal:Forming positive web-search

habits for diagnosing symptoms using the web

Neema Moravejiwww.moraveji.org

habits.stanford.eduhci.stanford.edulstd.stanford.edu

My expertise: make us discerning healers"Getting tech-savvy female university students to form web-search habits that lead to finding balanced and credible medical health information on the Internet to diagnose symptoms."

Habits that matter, big and small

• Identifying the credibility of a site.• Identifying and distinguishing between multiple diagnoses of

same symptoms that use different schools of thought.• Using specific query terms to narrow your focus• Using domain-appropriate language (identifying it if you

don't know it)• Going beyond the 'first hit'• Investigating alternative diagnoses• Identifying authoritative sources• Avoiding 'symptom overload' --> hypochondria• Investigating multiple diagnoses to find differences• Summarizing conclusions with nuanced treatment, not silver

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How related habits form

Using a dictionaryUsing recipe book Making spaghetti Using Google to find information (as opposed to other sites) 

Googling is a habit, not a decision.

"In other words, for competitors looking to kick the Google search habit..., it just won't matter if you're better. You need to create a different, compelling habit."

Matt Asay, COO of Canonicalhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10129436-16.html

How does the 'Google' habit form? 

Out-of-process• Hear people use the term "google" as a verb.• Google is default search in some browser searchbars and homepages

(e.g. Firefox, Safari, Dell).• Visibility of searchbox/logo when using Gmail, etc.• One-time setup of your default browser search engine.

In-process• Turn to the web to solve an information need where you don't know the site

you need.• Open browser window or tab.• Ensure address bar OR google.com searchbox is selected - no need to

consciously 'choose' Google because it is 'under the hood'• Abstract the information need to a keyword-based query.

Behavior path• GreenDot --> BlueSpan --> BluePath