Supporting information use and task accomplishment: What system features do users like and expect?

Abstract

Information systems have been improving in helping users find information. However, they have been less attended to regarding helping searchers in using located information. This research attempts to address the issue of information use by investigating what information systems and features searchers think are helpful in using located information to accomplish information tasks. In all, 32 college students were invited to an information interaction lab, first being interviewed on a recently completed task and then working on a to-be-finished task, both being their real-life tasks of their own choices. Through questionnaires, the study discovered the most favoured existing and expected features helpful for users’ task completion. Users expected convenient citations, note taking in search result pages and being kept on task. Findings in this study have implications on designing search systems that can better support task accomplishment, in addition to returning search results.