Information Foraging.¶
Pirolli, P., & Card, S. (1999). Information Foraging. Psychological Review, 106(4), 643-675.
Cited by¶
9 citations across 9 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Desire Path
- In knowledge work and wikis, it is the pages people actually link, the search queries that bottom out in zero results, the bookmark folder used in lieu of the official taxonomy.
This sourceDevelops information-foraging theory and 'information scent,' modeling how users' actual search and link-following behavior reveals where an information architecture channels (or fails to channel) movement — the IA substrate in which desire-path-style traces appear.
- In knowledge work and wikis, it is the pages people actually link, the search queries that bottom out in zero results, the bookmark folder used in lieu of the official taxonomy.
- Information Scent
- And scent quality is a design lever — wherever cue quality is partially under designer or environmental control, traversal efficiency is engineerable, and the same behavior can be made efficient or inefficient depending on whether cues correlate with destination value.
This sourceFoundational paper porting optimal-foraging theory into HCI and defining information scent as cues predicting the value of following a path.
- And scent quality is a design lever — wherever cue quality is partially under designer or environmental control, traversal efficiency is engineerable, and the same behavior can be made efficient or inefficient depending on whether cues correlate with destination value.
- Invisible Affordance
- Not `information_scent`. Information scent is the cue strength guiding a user along a path they are already on; the invisible affordance fails one step upstream — there is no cue at all on the surface the user samples, so the path is never entered.
This sourceDevelops information-scent theory: the cue strength that guides a user already on a path toward an information goal.
- Not `information_scent`. Information scent is the cue strength guiding a user along a path they are already on; the invisible affordance fails one step upstream — there is no cue at all on the surface the user samples, so the path is never entered.
Domain-specific¶
Mechanisms¶
- Chunked Documentation
- Good headings and links give the page information scent, the cues that let a forager judge from a distance whether a path leads to what they want.
This sourceDefines information scent as cues that let an information seeker estimate the likely value and location of information before following a path.
- Good headings and links give the page information scent, the cues that let a forager judge from a distance whether a path leads to what they want.
- Cue-Destination Alignment Matrix
- It is, in effect, an inventory of the information scent each cue is supposed to emit.
This sourceModels information scent as the perceived value of information inferred from proximal cues.
- It is, in effect, an inventory of the information scent each cue is supposed to emit.
- Information Architecture Grouping
- Good IA maximizes information scent, the degree to which a label credibly signals what lies beneath it, so users confidently commit to a path instead of thrashing.
This sourceInformation scent is the estimated value or access path of information inferred from proximal cues.
- Good IA maximizes information scent, the degree to which a label credibly signals what lies beneath it, so users confidently commit to a path instead of thrashing.
- Knowledge-Base Retagging
- Its guardrail against the worst outcome is preserving information scent: the cues (labels, links, search terms) by which users judge whether a path leads to what they want, which retagging must not sever even as it moves the destination.
This sourceExplains that users follow information scent cues when navigating toward likely sources of desired information.
- Its guardrail against the worst outcome is preserving information scent: the cues (labels, links, search terms) by which users judge whether a path leads to what they want, which retagging must not sever even as it moves the destination.
- Labeling Audit
Verification¶
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