Barbara M. Wildemuth

Post-Positivist Research: Two Examples of Methodological Pluralism

A post-positivist research approach advocates methodological pluralism. It is based on the assumption that the method to be applied in a particular study should be selected based on the research question being addressed. The research described here takes a post-positivist approach, applying interpretive research in two ways: in an exploratory study of end-user computing conducted prior to a positivist study and in a study of end-user searching behaviors conducted concurrently with a positivist study.

How fast is too fast? evaluating fast forward surrogates for digital video

To support effective browsing, interfaces to digital video libraries should include video surrogates (i.e., smaller objects that can stand in for the videos in the collection, analogous to abstracts standing in for documents). The current study investigated four variations (i.e., speeds) of one form of video surrogate: a fast forward created by selecting every Nth frame from the full video. In addition, it tested the validity of six measures of user performance when interacting with video surrogates. Forty-five study participants interacted with all four versions of the fast forward surrogate, and completed all six performance tasks with each. Surrogate speed affected performance on four of the measures: object recognition (graphical), action recognition, linguistic gist comprehension (full text), and visual gist comprehension. Based on these results, we recommend a fast forward default speed of 1:64 of the original video keyframes. In addition, users should control the choice of fast forward speed to adjust for content characteristics and personal preferences.

Assigning search tasks designed to elicit exploratory search behaviors

The goal of this paper is to provide guidance to researchers investigating exploratory search behaviors and exploratory search systems. It focuses on the design of search tasks assigned in such studies. Based on a review of past studies, a set of task characteristics associated with exploratory search tasks are identified: exploratory search tasks focus on learning and investigative search goals; they are general (rather than specific), open-ended, and often target multiple items/documents; they involve uncertainty and are motivated by ill-defined or ill-structured problems; they are dynamic and evolve over time; they are multi-faceted and may be procedurally complex; and they are often accompanied by other information or cognitive behaviors, such as sensemaking. Recommendations are provided for the design of search task descriptions that will elicit exploratory search behaviors.

Unraveling the web: an evaluation of the content quality, usability, and readability of nutrition web sites.

OBJECTIVE To determine the content quality, general readability, and usability characteristics of consumer nutrition information on the World Wide Web. DESIGN Almost 500 Web sites were identified for evaluation through 2 different approaches. Of these, 150 were included for further evaluation. Each site was rated on a 27-item tool covering content quality, readability, and usability. ANALYSIS Summary statistics, means, ranges, and standard deviation were calculated for each study variable. The statistical significance of differences between item means by search strategy was determined using Students t tests. RESULTS Web sites identified using popular search engines scored significantly lower for content quality (P < .0001), were easier to navigate (P < .001), had better overall adherence to usability standards (P < .0001), and had lower reading levels compared with those sites identified using a government Web portal. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Nutrition Web sites obtained using popular search engines may be aesthetically appealing and easy to use, but they often provide inaccurate nutrition information. As consumers increasingly turn to the World Wide Web for nutrition advice and education, it is imperative that the needs of diverse user populations be identified and addressed. Future nutrition education research should build on these findings by creating strategies that help users find reliable user-friendly gateways to accurate nutrition information on the Internet.

Text or pictures? an eyetracking study of how people view digital video surrogates

One important user-oriented facet of digital video retrieval research involves how to abstract and display digital video surrogates. This study reports on an investigation of digital video results pages that use textual and visual surrogates. Twelve subjects selected relevant video records from results lists containing titles, descriptions, and three keyframes for ten different search tasks. All subjects were eye-tracked to determine where, when, and how long they looked at text and image surrogates. Participants looked at and fixated on titles and descriptions statistically reliably more than on the images. Most people used the text as an anchor from which to make judgments about the search results and the images as confirmatory evidence for their selections. No differences were found whether the layout presented text or images in left to right order.

Public librarians as a resource for promoting health: results from the Health for Everyone in Libraries Project (HELP) librarian survey.

Public libraries are located in all communities, and two thirds of adults visit one each year. Libraries give the public access to computers and the Internet, and librarians offer technical assistance for accessing information. The interests and training needs of public librarians for assisting the public in accessing health information have not been addressed. One public library/librarian in each North Carolina county was randomly selected to complete a written questionnaire to assess health-related information services and librarians’ skills for providing these services. 84% of librarians (83/99) completed the questionnaire. Results indicate that librarians answer more than 10 health-related questions per week, feel moderately comfortable answering these questions, and are very interested in receiving additional training for addressing health related questions. Creating public library/public health partnerships holds much promise for enhancing the ability of community members to access desired health information.

Curriculum development for digital libraries

The Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science (VT CS) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (UNC SILS) have launched a curriculum development project in the area of digital libraries. Educational resources would be developed based on the ACM/IEEE-CS computing curriculum 2001. Lesson plans and modules would be developed in a variety of areas (that cover the topics of papers and conference sessions in the field), evaluated by experts in those areas, and then pilot tested in CS and LIS courses. An analysis of papers on digital library-related topics from several corpora was performed, to identify the areas in which more and less work has already been performed on these topics; this analysis would guide the initial stages of this curriculum development

An empirically grounded model of the adoption of intellectual technologies

A qualitative study of end‐user computing applications in five departments in three organizations was undertaken. The study was designed to develop an empirically grounded model of the adoption process for intellectual technologies—technologies that are inherently flexible, enabling the user to take on the role of developer. Detailed analysis of 43 user‐developed computing applications resulted in a model consisting of five stages: Resource Acquisition, Application Development, Adoption/Renewal, Routinization/Enhancement, and External Adoption. By comparing this model with two prior models of the adoption process, aspects of the adoption process requiring futher research were identified.

Untangling search task complexity and difficulty in the context of interactive information retrieval studies

Purpose – One core element of interactive information retrieval (IIR) experiments is the assignment of search tasks. The purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical review of current practice in developing those search tasks to test, observe or control task complexity and difficulty. Design/methodology/approach – Over 100 prior studies of IIR were examined in terms of how each defined task complexity and/or difficulty (or related concepts) and subsequently interpreted those concepts in the development of the assigned search tasks. Findings – Search task complexity is found to include three dimensions: multiplicity of subtasks or steps, multiplicity of facets, and indeterminability. Search task difficulty is based on an interaction between the search task and the attributes of the searcher or the attributes of the search situation. The paper highlights the anomalies in our use of these two concepts, concluding with suggestions for future methodological research related to search task complexity and d...

The relative effectiveness of concept-based versus content-based video retrieval

Three video search systems were compared in the interactive search task at the TRECVID 2003 workshop: a <i>text-only</i> system, which searched video shots through transcripts; a <i>features-only</i> system, which searched video shots through 16 video content features (e.g., airplanes and people); and a <i>combined</i> system, which searched through both transcripts and content features. 36 participants each completed 12 video search tasks. The hypothesis that the combined system would perform better than both the text-only and the features-only systems was not supported, and large topic effects were found. Further analysis showed that concept-based video retrieval worked best for <i>specific</i> topics, whereas the hybrid retrieval techniques which combine both concept- and content-based video retrieval showed some advantage when searching for <i>generic</i> topics. The results have implications for topic/task analysis for video retrieval research, and also for the implementation of hybrid video retrieval systems.