[Sigia-l] Applying Information Foraging Models

[Thomas Vander Wal]

I came across info foraging (scent of info) about a year or two ago.  I had
tried using simplified versions of it to help clients understand how to
better build browsing structures for their information.  This produced a
very quick eye glaze on the client's part and many developers.
None-the-less I have been digging through much of what the Xerox Parc folks
have published and other information I can get my hands on.  The metaphor
used can take some describing before applying it and having it grasped.  The
hope for info foraging has been to use it as a framework for early stage
development.

I am curious how others that have tried explaining info foraging found it
took to have the listeners grasp the concept enough to have it become a
usable metaphor. What level of people were you conveying this to?  I have
found it was taking 15 to 20 minutes to get to a metaphor that was clear
enough to use (this was including using graphics to assist). I know Jared
Spool uses this in his bag of tricks, in listening to his discussion in
Portland, it seemed it was 10 to 15 minutes of setting up the framework, but
through out his discussion.

Not only have/had I been finding the info foraging not as easy a metaphor to
grasp as I thought it would have been, but it is useful mostly for just
finding information.

A year and a half ago I started working on the Model of Attraction, as a
framework to better think about what many have called navigation.  In
developing the MoA I found I was using incorporating a simpler version of
info foraging, Attraction.

The simpler method has been helpful in working with clients and developers.
In explaining how information browsing structures can be built by focusing
on attraction.  The client and develops seem to quickly understand the goal
of user-centered development by focusing on building a site that groups
information that the user sees as information that is attracted to one other
information.  One bond of attraction is a hyperlink.

The MoA uses four receptors for attraction: Intellectual (cognitive),
Perceptual (sensory - visual), mechanical (digital), and physical.  These
receptors help clients and developer begin to think about how users think
about the terms and browsing structure (intellectual), appearance
(perceptual), ability to use the information - do they have the right
software and hardware (digital), and how can the user store and reuse the
information (physical).  These elements have greatly helped expand the early
stage information development framework, based on a similar concept to info
foraging.  In using these elements we usually only focus on one or two at a
time, usually starting with the intellectual, then moving to the perceptual
and mechanical (there are some common elements with these two), then
physical.

The Model of Attraction is very much a work in progress.
http://www.vanderwal.net/essays/moa/

All the best,
Thomas 


On 6/25/03 8:22 PM, "Victor Lombardi" <victorlombardi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I've only made it part way through the literature so
> far, but I don't expect to see information foraging
> explained as a design approach. What I've read
> examines use of artifacts to determine if foraging is
> a suitable model to explain user behavior. It's
> grounded in psychology (not, um, philosophy),
> particularly the workings of memory, and so the
> experiments result in conclusions about users, not
> design practice.
> 
> That said, one could reverse their ideas and apply the
> concepts to design. For example, the idea that we form
> associations in memory that are related to the
> probabilities of word occurences and word
> co-occurences could be used to create labels. There
> are databases of these occurences, such as the Tipster
> corpus. I don't know of anyone who has tried this yet.
> 
> Victor
> 
> 
> =====
> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2003 08:14:22 -0700
> From: Peter Merholz <peterme at peterme.com>
> To: SIGIA <sigia-l at asis.org>
> Subject: [Sigia-l] Applying Information Foraging
> Models
> 
> SIGIA-Ellers--
> 
> So, I've been looking at information foraging research
> and studies to 
> see if
> I could apply them to some real-world problems.
> 
> A great overview of IF research has been put together
> by Victor:
> <http://tinyurl.com/f8cy>
> 
> While I appreciate what the basic models offer in
> terms of explaining
> user
> behavior ("patches" of information, weighing of
> "costs", the influence
> of a
> strong "scent"), I'm having trouble in getting it to
> make sense for me
> in
> practical terms. As in, how can I utilize this in my
> practice? (Without
> expensive computer simulations of user behavior...)
> 
> Have folks on the list attempted utilizing IF
> techniques, approaches,
> and
> models? Or thought about how to do so feasibly?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> --peter
> 
> 
> =====
> Victor Lombardi
> http://www.noisebetweenstations.com