Information Seeking Behavior
Prof. Marti Hearst
SIMS 202, Lecture 25
Today

Information Seeking Behavior
Combine tactics into strategies
 Two parts of a process:
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search and retrieval
 analysis and synthesis of search results
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This is a fuzzy area; we will look at
several different working theories.
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Finding Out About
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Three phases:
Asking of a question
 Construction of an answer
 Assessment of the answer

Part of an iterative process
 Examine tactics and strategies for each
phase
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Tactics vs. Strategies
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Tactic: short term goals and maneuvers
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operators, actions
Strategy: overall planning
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link a sequence of operators together to
achieve some end
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Lexis-Nexis Interface
What tactics did you use?
 What strategies did you use?
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Search Tactics and Strategies
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Search Tactics
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Bates 79
Search Strategies
Belkin et al. 93, 94
 Bates 90
 O’Day and Jeffries 93
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Information Search Tactics
(after Bates 79)
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Monitoring tactics
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Source-level tactics
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keep search on track
navigate to and within sources
Term and Search Formulation tactics
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designing search forumulation
selection and revision of specific terms within
search formulation
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Term Tactics
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Move around the thesaurus
superordinate, subordinate, coordinate
 neighbor (semantic or alphabetic)
 trace -- pull out terms from information
already seen as part of search (titles, etc)
 morphological and other spelling variants
 antonyms (contrary)

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Search Formulation Tactics
Include or exclude terms
 Boolean focus queries
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Source-level Tactics
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“Bibble”:
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Survey:
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look for a pre-defined result set
e.g., a good link page on web
look ahead, review available options
e.g., don’t simply use the first term or first source
that comes to mind
Cut:
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eliminate large proportion of search domain
e.g., search on rarest term first
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Source-level Tactics (cont.)
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Stretch
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Scaffold
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use source in unintended way
e.g., use patents to find addresses
take an indirect route to goal
e.g., when looking for references to obscure poet,
look up contemporaries
Cleave
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binary search in an ordered file
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Monitoring Tactics
(strategy-level)
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Check
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Weigh
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make a cost/benefit analysis of current or
anticipated actions
Pattern
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compare original goal with current state
recognize common strategies
Correct Errors
Record
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keep track of (incomplete) paths
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Additional Considerations
(Bates 79)
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Add a Sort tactic!
More detail is needed about short-term
cost/benefit decision rule strategies
When to stop?
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How to judge when enough information has been
gathered?
How to decide when to give up an unsuccesful
search?
When to stop searching in one source and move
to another?
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Information Seeking Strategies
(Belkin et al. 93, 94)
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A multi-dimensional space:
very simple tactic types
 very simple goal types
 information vs. meta-information
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Create a strategy type by choosing a
value from each dimension
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
ISS Dimensions
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Goal of interaction
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Method of interaction
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learning (browsing to get to know an area)
selection (identifying useful items)
scanning (looking for something interesting)
searching (looking for a specific known item)
Resource type
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information
meta-information
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Information Seeking Strategies
(Modified from Belkin et al. 93)
ISS Scan
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Search Learn
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Select Info Meta
-Info
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Example ISS’s
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ISS G: prototypical specific search
search through a specific information
source
 retrieve articles that match a keyword
specification of the topic

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Example ISS’s
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ISS B: prototypical undirected search
user approaches system with some vague
idea about a topic
 scans through a meta-information structure
 learns about general topic information
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Example ISS’s
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ISS D:
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scan through a table-of-contents of a
journal to select items on a particular topic
ISS A:
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scan through a periodicals shelf to learn
what journals are available on a given topic
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
New strategy types

What happens if we place Bates’ tactic
types into Belkin et al.’s strategy space?
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
“Berry-Picking” as an Information
Seeking Strategy (Bates 90)
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Standard IR model
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assumes the information need remains the same
throughout the search process
Berry-picking model
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interesting information is scattered like berries
among bushes
the query is continually shifting
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Berry-picking model (cont.)
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The query is continually shifting
Users may move through a variety of sources
New information may yield new ideas and new
directions
The query is not satisfied by a single, final
retrieved set, but rather by a series of selections
and bits of information found along the way
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
A sketch of a searcher… “moving through many actions
towards a general goal of satisfactory completion of
research related to an information need.” (after Bates 90)
Q2
Q4
Q3
Q1
Q5
Q0
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Implications
Interfaces should make it easy to store
intermediate results
 Interfaces should make it easy to follow
trails with unanticipated results
 Difficulties with evaluation

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Orienteering
(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
Interconnected but diverse searches on a
single, problem-based theme
 Focus on information delivery rather than
search performance
 Classifications resulting from an
extended observational study:
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15 clients of professional intermediaries
 financial analyst, venture capitalist, product
marketing engineer, statistician, etc.
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Orienteering
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(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
Defined three main search types
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monitoring
a well-known topic over time
 e.g., research four competitors every quarter
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following a plan
a typical approach to the task at hand
 e.g., improve business process X
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exploratory
explore topic in an undirected fashion
 get to know an unfamiliar industry
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Orienteering
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Trends:
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(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
A series of interconnected but diverse searches on
one problem-based theme
This happened in all three search modes
Each analyst did at least two search types
Each stage followed by reading, assimilation,
and analysis of resulting material
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Orienteering
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
(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
*Searches tended to trigger new directions
 Overview, then detail, repeat
 Information need shifted between search requests
 Context of problem and previous searches were
carried to next stage of search
*The value was contained in the accumulation of
search results, not the final result set
*Observations verified Bates’ predictions
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Orienteering

(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
Triggers: motivation to switch from one
strategy to another
 next logical step in a plan
 encountering something interesting
 explaining change
 finding missing pieces
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Stop Conditions
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Categories not as clear as for triggers
People stopped searching when
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no more compelling triggers
finished an appropriate amount of searching for the task
specific inhibiting factor
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e.g., learning market was too small
lack of increasing returns
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(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
80/20 rule
Missing information/inferences ok
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business world different than scholarship
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
After the Search:
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Analyzing and Synthesizing Results
Orienteering Study
 Sensemaking Work
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Analyzing and Synthesizing
Search Results
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Orienteering Post-Search Behaviors:
 Read and Annotate
 Analyze
six main types
 80% fell into six main types
 the rest:
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cross-reference
summarize
find evocative visualizations
miscellaneous
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Post-Search Analysis Types
(O’Day & Jeffries 93)
Trends
 Comparisons
 Aggregation and Scaling
 Identifying a Critical Subset
 Assessing
 Interpreting

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
SenseMaking
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The process of encoding retrieved information
to answer task-specific questions
Combine
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(Russell et al. 93)
internal cognitive resources
external retrieved resources
Create a good representation

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an iterative process
contend with a cost/benefit tradoff
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
“Sensemaking” in the
Business Intelligence
Analysis Task (Russell et al. 93)
Established analysis
scheme
Select important
documents
Collect documents
For each topic,
instantiate schema
Organize documents
by topic
Collect additional
required documents
Write report
Evaluate responses
to report
Generate final
report
Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Sensemaking (Russell et al. 93)
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An anytime activity
at any point a workable solution available
 usually more time -> better solution
 usually more properties -> better solution

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Sensemaking (Russell et al. 93)
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A good strategy
maximizes long term rate of gain
 example:

new technology brings more info faster
 uniform increase in useful and useless
information
 best strategy: throw out bad stuff faster
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Sensemaking (Russell et al. 93)
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Most of the effort is in synthesis of a
good representation
covers the data
 increase usability
 decrease cost-of-use
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Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997
Coming Up
User Interfaces for Information Access
 Using MetaData in Search
 Hypertext Navigation and Search

Marti A. Hearst
SIMS 202, Fall 1997