Refinding Information on the Web: What do we do?

The problem of how to find information of the web has received considerable study and many tools are available to help users search for information. Recently, there has been an increasing realization that refinding and managing information once it is found is a significant problem for many users. Information that was found is not always easy to refind.

In this talk, I will report on results from a laboratory study conducted to investigate factors that affect refinding information on the Web and to better understand the strategies people use to refind. Participants completed a set of 18 tasks to find information on the web and then, about a week later, a second set of 18 tasks to refind the same or similar information. I will present results from the study and discuss dimensions of the refinding problem in terms of implications for the design of information and tools to help users manage information.

Speaker Bios

Robert Capra recently completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Virginia Tech where he was a member of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction. He has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis and worked as a Senior Member of Technical Staff for SBC Labs (recently merged with AT&T) in the area of voice user interfaces.His research areas are in human-computer interaction, electronic information management, finding and refinding information, and voice user interfaces. Capra is currently researching information interfaces and personal information management at the School of Information and Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill.

Date:
Haut-parleurs:
Robert Capra
Affiliation:
UNC Chapel Hill