Lori McCay-Peet

On saliency, affect and focused attention

We study how the visual catchiness (saliency) of relevant information impacts user engagement metrics such as focused attention and emotion (affect). Participants completed tasks in one of two conditions, where the task-relevant information either appeared salient or non-salient. Our analysis provides insights into relationships between saliency, focused attention, and affect. Participants reported more distraction in the non-salient condition, and non-salient information was slower to find than salient. Lack-of-saliency led to a negative impact on affect, while saliency maintained positive affect, suggesting its helpfulness. Participants reported that it was easier to focus in the salient condition, although there was no significant improvement in the focused attention scale rating. Finally, this study suggests user interest in the topic is a good predictor of focused attention, which in turn is a good predictor of positive affect. These results suggest that enhancing saliency of user-interested topics seems a good strategy for boosting user engagement.

Chance encounters in the digital library

While many digital libraries focus on supporting defined tasks that require targeted searching, there is potential for enabling serendipitous discovery that can serve multiple purposes from aiding with the targeted search to suggesting new approaches, methods and ideas. In this research we embedded a tool in a novel interface to suggest other pages to examine in order to assess how that tool might be used while doing focused searching. While only 40% of the participants used the tool, all assessed its usefulness or perceived usefulness. Most participants used it as a source of new terms and concepts to support their current tasks; a few noted the novelty and perceived its potential value in serving as a stimulant.

Networks of digital humanities scholars: The informational and social uses and gratifications of Twitter

Big Data research is currently split on whether and to what extent Twitter can be characterized as an informational or social network. We contribute to this line of inquiry through an investigation of digital humanities (DH) scholars’ uses and gratifications of Twitter. We conducted a thematic analysis of 25 semi-structured interview transcripts to learn about these scholars’ professional use of Twitter. Our findings show that Twitter is considered a critical tool for informal communication within DH invisible colleges, functioning at varying levels as both an information network (learning to ‘Twitter’ and maintaining awareness) and a social network (imagining audiences and engaging other digital humanists). We find that Twitter follow relationships reflect common academic interests and are closely tied to scholars’ pre-existing social ties and conference or event co-attendance. The concept of the invisible college continues to be relevant but requires revisiting. The invisible college formed on Twitter is messy, consisting of overlapping social contexts (professional, personal and public), scholars with different habits of engagement, and both formal and informal ties. Our research illustrates the value of using multiple methods to explore the complex questions arising from Big Data studies and points toward future research that could implement Big Data techniques on a small scale, focusing on sub-topics or emerging fields, to expose the nature of scholars’ invisible colleges made visible on Twitter.

Examination of relationships among serendipity, the environment, and individual differences

We developed a three-factor scale to measure a serendipitous digital environment.Type of digital environment (e.g. social media, database) may influence serendipity.Digital environment characteristics such as trigger-rich may influence serendipity.Individual differences such as openness do not significantly influence serendipity. Under what conditions is serendipity most likely to occur? How much is serendipity influenced by what a person brings to the process, and how much by the environment in which the person is immersed? This study assessed (a) selected human characteristics that may influence the ability to experience serendipity (openness to experience, extraversion, and locus of control) and (b) selected perceptions of the environment in which people are immersed, including the creative environment, and selected characteristics (trigger rich, highlights triggers, enables connections, and leads to the unexpected). Finally, the study examined the relationships among these internal people-based and external, environmental, variables. Professionals, academics, and students engaged in thesis work (N=289) responded to a web-based questionnaire that integrated six scales to measure these variables. Results were analysed using principal components analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and multiple regression. We found some types of digital environments, (e.g., websites, databases, search engines, intranets, social media sites) may be more conducive to serendipity than others, while environments that manifest selected characteristics (trigger-rich, enable connections, and lead to the unexpected) are perceived more likely to foster serendipity than others. However, the perceived level of creativity expected in work environments was not associated with serendipity. In addition, while extraverted people may be more likely to experience serendipity in general, those who are open to experience or have an external locus of control are no more likely to experience serendipity than their counterparts. Notable from our findings was a failure in identifying individual differences that may influence a persons likelihood to experience serendipity, in contrast with our success in identifying how the environment in which the user is immersed may create a fertile environment for serendipity to occur.

How is a search system used in work task completion

Typically studies of information retrieval and interactive information retrieval concentrate on the identification of relevant items. In this study, rather than stop at finding relevant items, we considered how people use a search system in the completion of a broader work task. To conduct the study, we created 12 tasks that required multiple queries and document views in order to find enough information to complete the task. A total of 381 people completed three tasks each in a laboratory setting using the wikiSearch system that was embedded into WiIRE. Results found that two-thirds of time spent on the task was spent after finding a relevant set of documents sufficient for task completion, and that time was mainly spent reviewing documents that had already been retrieved. Findings suggest that an open-source information retrieval system, such as Lucene, was adequate for this task. However, the ultimate challenge will be in building useful systems that aid the user in extracting, interpreting and analysing information to achieve work task completion.

The serendipity quotient

When does a system have the potential to enable serendipity? The objective of this research was to develop a measure, the serendipity quotient, of digital environments. By extracting indicators of serendipitous outcomes, we developed a scale and tested it with 124 participants who spent 20 minutes examining the contents of the Wikipedia using a novel interface. Exploratory factor analysis extracted five of the seven items which taken as a set indicate whether participants had strategic insights that have the potential for future serendipitous outcomes.

wikiSearch: from access to use

A digital library (DL) facilitates a search workflow process. Yet many DLs hide much of the user activity involved in the process from the user. In this research we developed an interface, wikiSearch, to support that process. This interface flattened the typical multi-page implementation into a single layer that provided multiple memory aids. The interface was tested by 96 people who used the system in a laboratory to resolve multiple tasks. Assessment was through use, usability testing and closed and open perception questions. In general participants found that the interface enabled them to stay on track with their task providing a birds eye view of the events - queries entered, pages viewed, and pertinent pages identified.

Encouraging serendipity in interactive systems

We regularly make serendipitous discoveries in both online and offline contexts - from stumbling upon a useful website when searching for something completely different to meeting someone with mutual research or business interests in an unlikely place. However, most existing interactive systems do not provide a fertile environment for serendipity to occur. This workshop will identify key requirements and research challenges for designing and evaluating user-centred systems that aim to encourage serendipity.

A Model of Social Media Engagement: User Profiles, Gratifications, and Experiences

This chapter presents a model of social media engagement. The model’s components–presentation of self, action and participation, uses and gratifications, positive experiences, usage and activity counts, and social context–are discussed in depth with relevant evidence and examples. The model supports the main thrust of the chapter to combine tangible, e.g., usage and activity counts, and more abstract, e.g., positive user experiences, indicators of engagement in order to better understand why people engage with social media, the extent to which they engage, what social media platforms they interact with, and the outcomes of their engagement. The chapter includes illustrative case studies and concludes with some thought-provoking questions to guide future research, including the ethical and social implications of social media engagement

Researching Serendipity in Digital Information Environments

Abstract Chance, luck, and good fortune are the usual go-to descriptors of serendipity, a phenomenon aptly often coupled with famous anecdotes of accidental discoveries in engineering and science in modern history such as penicillin, Teflon, and Post-it notes. Serendipity, however, is evident in many fields of research, in organizations, in everyday life—and there is more to it than luck implies. While the phenomenon is strongly associated with in-person interactions with people, places, and things, most attention of late has focused on its preservation and facilitation within digital information environments. Serendipitys association with unexpected, positive user experiences and outcomes has spurred an interest in understanding both how current digital information environments support serendipity and how novel approaches may be developed to facilitate it. Research has sought to understand serendipity, how it is manifested in peoples personality traits and behaviors, how it may be facilitated in digita...