Posted By
Simone Stumpf on 06/23/2009
I have to admit I am smitten with Information Foraging1—the notion that humans optimize their information "diet" to maximize the value of information intake against the cost of getting it, much like a tiger doesn't just wait for a tasty bit of deer to fall into its mouth, but instead relies on a hunting strategy. Although Information Foraging started out as a mathematical model (eek!), it brings together a lot of theories of Web browsing and searching behavior and can inform practice in powerful ways. For example, it explains quite neatly why it is a bad idea to put important information below the fold—scrolling is a cost which the user will trade off against the potential value of information.
The notion of "information scent" is one of the cornerstones of the theory, much akin to animals following scent trails to lead them to their prey. Humans follow cues on Web sites to lead them to the information they are looking for. If the scent stops getting stronger, they stop and move on to the next patch (or maybe a competitor's site…). Designing the user experience will make sure that the cues that users get are appropriate and strong enough to lead them onto the correct path to the information that they want. Nomenclature is only one part of this—choosing menu items, headings, and link names that contain cues that signal "your prey is near." Visual cues combine with textual cues—colors, icons, images, even Flash. A challenge, of course, is making sure that multiple cues, possibly representing various paths, do not compete so that users—be they tigers, porcupines, or possums—can track the scent they find the most alluring.
I think constantly about information foraging and information scent when putting together site maps and wireframes or looking at comps. Now…did I just smell apple pie?
1 Pirolli, P; Card, S (1999) Information foraging. Psychological Review, 106 (4), pp. 643-675.
Tags: Information Architecture, Web design, user research, user personas
Comments (1)
| I agree with your thoughts, with the exception of the fold statement. I think as long as it looks like you should scroll, the user will scroll. It's a very cheap action to perform in pursuing a scent trail, and more valuable than hitting the back button. Unless the page otherwise kills the trail, through bad design or other factors.
Posted by: Chris (hello@studio625.net) on 10/03/2009 |
