Interacting with Information

Ann Blandford

with thanks to Anne Adams, Simon Attfield, David Bainbridge, Nick Bryan-Kinns, George Buchanan, Richard Butterworth, Sally-Jo Cunningham, Abdigani Diriye, John Dowell, Mark Edwards, Sarah Faisal, Bob Fields, Jeremy Gow, Siti Ibrahim, James Kalbach, Suzette Keith, Stephann Makri, Dave Nichols, Jon Rimmer, Hanna Stelmaszewska, Harold Thimbleby, Claire Warwick, Ian Witten

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Where I’m coming from

• Background in Human–Computer Interaction• Research focus on people and how technology can

support their activities– Making people “smart”– Taking account of the situatedness of interactions

• Physical, temporal, linked to activities

– Methods appropriate to the research question• Qualitative, quantitative, model-based

• Particular focus on interactions with information– Seeking a “bottom up” understanding of what people really do and

how information integrates with their professional lives.

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Qualitative data gathering

• In-depth interviews• Observations• Contextual inquiry• System logs• Focus groups

• All investigating the work context• Though with different detailed focus for different studies

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Qualitative data analysis

• Grounded Theory– Iterative ‘layers’ of coding to identify and develop an understanding

of emergent themes– Theoretical sampling of participants to develop a richer

understanding of issues.– Triangulating across sources and data types to validate

understanding

• Interpreting data with respect to a particular theory to apply, test or extend that theory– E.g. CSE or Communities of Practice

• …with a view to developing and testing tools to support activities

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Assumptions, explicit and implicit:Information provision suffices

• “If you build it they will come”– OR: If it’s available it will be found

• People will focus on information seeking as a discrete activity– “Activity in the library” is an appropriate focus of study

• Given the right information, people will understand its meaning for themselves

• Experts need to reference information sources as part of their decision making

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A richer understanding of information behaviour: the information journey

• Effective IR is an essential foundation for information work.• Effective IS encapsulates a broader understanding of the

human activity in the system.• The IJ is yet a bigger picture, with phases of

– Information need– Information acquisition– Information interpretation and validation– Information use– …that evolve with the activity

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The information journey: patients

• Need may be initiated by a recognised problem (symptom) or by an external event (e.g. news article on MMR vaccine)– Do I need to see a doctor?– What will the doctor want to know from me?– Validating the doctor’s assessment…

• Acquisition is often the best supported – e.g. from internet, NHS Direct, etc.– Challenge: who is the information written for?

• Interpretation and use contextualise the information to the situation

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

Information use

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The information journey:journalists

• Initiated to support today’s “story”• Requirements for acquisition often exploratory

– Working with constraints• Angle, newsworthiness, accuracy

– Relevance assessments often difficult• Need to be able to retrieve information that was initially of low relevance as

requirements evolve

• Interpretation includes making sense of information from multiple sources. Facts need to be checked.

• Use supports writing articles

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

Information use

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The information journey:journalists

“…I remember on the day [September 11th, 2001] that by the time of the second plane, I and others were saying: "This must be an act of terrorism, because this is not coincidental, an accident…". So had I been writing the story, I would have begun building up information to support my hypothesis that the acts of September 11 were terrorism. The standard journalistic questions of who, what, why, when, how would have been asked about the events against the backdrop of my hypothesis of terrorism.”

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

Information use

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The information journey:journalists

• Initiated to support today’s “story”• Requirements for acquisition often exploratory

– Working with constraints• Angle, newsworthiness, accuracy

– Relevance assessments often difficult• Need to be able to retrieve information that was initially of low relevance as

requirements evolve

• Interpretation includes making sense of information from multiple sources. Facts need to be checked.

• Use supports writing articles

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

Information use

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Information journey:lawyers

• Routine work and creative / problem solving work• There isn’t a single correct way to solve a problem

– E.g. prepare a case for litigation

• Information not just from legal sources– E.g. property lawyer used Multimap, Companies House,

Google, etc. to gather information for contracts and cases

• Some needs so vague they cannot be delegated

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

(and validation)

Information use

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Information journey:students

• Need is defined by the essay / assignment description

• Anticipating the demands of interpretation and validation, students:– Select sources in which they have confidence– Select topics (or reinterpret the question) that minimise

the interpretation demands

• This is a novel form of “satisficing” in information seeking

Information need

Information acquisition

Information interpretation

(and validation)

Information use

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A focus on information interpretation

• Information is integrated from different sources and media to create understanding of complex situations– Lawyers report looking at commentaries as well as

cases, and seeking background information to make sense of legal documentation

– Journalists were observed laying information out around their desks to get an overview and understand it

– Clinicians report consulting peers to check interpretations of published information

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Sensemaking: iterating through need and interpretation

example from e-discovery

Create/amend/review external representation

Review & code documents

Search documents

Recover documents and populate database

Report, discuss

Database

Results sets

Coded collections

ClaimsIssues

Information volume lowInformation relevance highInformation structure high

Information volume highAverage relevance lowInformation structure low

Interview witnesses

Issues IssuesTranscripts

Issues

Issues

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The extended information journey: developing and maintaining expertise: E.g. clinicians

• Evidence Based Medicine assumes clinicians refer to current best evidence for every case

• Clinicians’ expertise is based on what they know by monitoring developments in their specialism– Reading the literature– Talking with colleagues

• Need to seek information outside their area of expertise– Often need information interpretation / validation from a colleague

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Supporting information work: examples

• Linking text to evidence• Information organisation

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Supporting sensemaking: examples

• Interactive visualisations to explore space

• Richer context to support ill-defined searching

• Chronologies to see temporal patterns

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

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A way forward

• The information provision view contrasts with the lived experience.

– Need to distinguish between routine and sophisticated information activities and how they can be supported. Classic IR supports the routine.

• Resources are being wasted on inappropriate technologies based on incorrect assumptions about information practices.

• A richer understanding of what people really do and why should inform the design of innovative technologies to support those activities.

– Need a focus on sensemaking and information interaction and use.

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Acknowledgements

• EPSRC (GR/S84798, EP/D056268)• ESRC (RES-335-25-0032)• Lexis Nexis for support• Greenstone development team at University of Waikato• Many individuals…

• See www.uclic.ucl.ac.uk/annb/DLUsability/

Thank you!