[finders] Information Interaction

[finders at findability.org]

September 29, 2005: Information Interaction

Hallelujah! Ambient Findability is finally in-stock at Amazon. I received my
copy on Friday. It's the first full-color animal book, and the images came
out great. Plus, it's about the same size as Don't Make Me Think, which must
be a good thing. But it didn't feel real until today when the words "Usually
ships within 24 hours" appeared on Amazon.

So, in celebration, here's a brief excerpt:

---

In 1995, Nahum Gershon coined the term "Human Information Interaction" (HII)
to denote "how human beings interact with, relate to, and process
information regardless of the medium connecting the two." Since then, the
term has been widely adopted by the traditional information science and
retrieval communities. Gary Marchionini of the UNC School of Information and
Library Science explains "the IR problem itself has fundamentally changed
and a new paradigm of information interaction has emerged." [1]

This paradigm is characterized by highly interactive interfaces,
user-centered methods, and a sensitivity to the dynamic, multi-channel
nature of information seeking behavior. Researchers in Human Information
Interaction draw insight and inspiration from the field of Human Computer
Interaction (HCI) while recognizing they face unique challenges. As Elaine
Toms suggests, "(the) unstructured, complex problem-solving task (of
information seeking) cannot be reduced in a predictable way to a set of
routine Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selections (GOMS)." [2]

In other words, the complexity of information interaction is not expressed
well in typical models of human-computer interaction. HCI approaches are
optimal for software applications and interfaces where designers can
exercise great control over form and function. HII approaches are optimal
for networked information systems where control is sacrificed for
interoperability. In such environments, users may find and interact with
information objects through a variety of devices and interfaces. The
emphasis shifts from interface to information.

---
Incidentally, I've been invited by Peter Pirolli and William Jones to
participate in a proposed panel at CHI 2006 to debate whether we need a
separate field of human-information interaction. Given the venue, things
could get interesting!

PERMALINK + COMMENTS
http://www.findability.org/archives/000052.php

LINKS MENTIONED

Gary Marchionini
http://ils.unc.edu/~march/


>From Information Retrieval to Information Interaction

http://ils.unc.edu/~march/ECIR.pdf

Peter Pirroli
http://www2.parc.com/istl/members/pirolli/pirolli.html

Finders, Keepers? by William Jones
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue9_3/jones/index.html