Website Design How-to Steps and Information Foraging
I’m fortunate that when I become busy and can’t write something worthy in my blog, I have good friends to introduce you to. This time, I have something to offer that’s helpful to those who want advice on starting a new website and something else for those who are light-years ahead of the game.
Yuri Filimonov has written Create a small business website on a small budget
I like checklists and articles that organize projects. That’s what Yuri does in his article. He links to affordable resources. He understands you may not have the skills to do everything yourself, and offers ideas on how to deal with that.
Yuri hits on the good stuff, including accessibility, usability, search engine marketing, template modification and optimization, linking and much more. He put some research into it and shares reputable leads to help get you going with confidence.
Reminder
For those of you in the USA who were involved with the launch of Search Marketing Standard magazine, the free ride may be over. It’s time to officially subscribe. To learn more about them, here is reader feedback and their active Search Marketing Standard blog.
Information Foraging
Hardcore folks interested in what makes humans tick when it comes to search and website usage will love this new book, due out in April 2007. It’s called Information Foraging Theory, written by Darwin Peter Pirolli. A peek into this book, called Book Preview: Information Foraging Theory, has this to say:
Most books on human-computer interaction (HCI) and usability give recommendations based on empirical research, guidelines fit to observed user behavior, and cognitive models after the fact. Peter Pirolli, the father of information foraging theory, has written a new book that models and predicts what users will do before they navigate a website. Using mathematical models of human behavior, Pirolli lays out the foundation of information foraging theory, a relatively new field based in part on optimal foraging theory in animals (Stephens & Krebs 1986). The result is a seminal work in Oxford University Press’ series on Human-Computer Interaction.
In case that sounds too complicated, this may spark your engine.
The book answers following questions that have vexed web developers for over a decade.
1. Why we abandon one website for another
2. Why a small decrease in “information scent” can exponentially increase search costs
3. How breakthrough discoveries occur
I may put this on my Amazon WishList, for my birthday in May.
How To Spend Our Money
Bruce Clay Inc. won some scholarship money from Cre8asiteforums and is looking for ideas on how to spend it. The beauty of their award is that they, like Search Engine College, chose to up the anty by targeting two students rather than one.
Because we’ve always supported opportunities for search engine optimization education, we’ve decided to match the money awarded to us in order to create an even greater opportunity for one deserving group or individual.
I’d write more, but my fingers are freezing. If you live on a nice warm island, could you send some of the heat to Pennsylvania? Thank you.
Stumble it!
Comments (5) to “Website Design How-to Steps and Information Foraging”
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated.
Website Design How-to Steps and Information Foraging - Google Adsense, Google Adwords wrote:
[...] Original post by cre8pc and software by Elliott Back Tags: website, google make me rich, google adwords, search engine [...]
Posted on 06-Feb-07 at 4:50 pm | Permalink
Yuri wrote:
Thanks
That information foraging book looks good. I wonder if it does answer all the questions we may have about our customers. If so, I’ll buy it (or wait for your posts about it..hmm).
Sorry, just -20F/-3C here. Not an island, but you can have it, if you want.
Posted on 06-Feb-07 at 5:11 pm | Permalink
iamlost wrote:
Philadelphia airport: -7 C (19 F) bright and wind chilly.
Pittsburg airport: -13 C (8 F) cloudy with snow.
Did your groundhog even get out of bed the other day?
Here in my valley on my bit of an island it is currently 7 C (45 F) with a steady drizzle, overcast/mist right to the tops of the trees, occassional freighter in the channel fog horning away.
Not really much heat to share from here this week. Perhaps you should invest in one of those ‘extra hot’ laptop batteries for cold finger days.
A very wet hawk is perched on the bird bath taking sips, shaking wings, and scaring the smaller birds. I on the other hand am inside, dry and warm with a wood fire going to chase away the damp, jazz and blues medley softening the mood, drinking a coffee and chocolate…its truly a miserable life here on the wet coast.
Posted on 07-Feb-07 at 11:00 am | Permalink
cre8pc wrote:
iamlost…I love your writings (both here and at Cre8asiteforums). The PA groundhog swore to us spring is around the corner, but he was likely bribed
Posted on 07-Feb-07 at 5:02 pm | Permalink
Mike wrote:
Information foraging seems to be one of the more popular theories on human information behavior currently percolating amongst both the “information science” and HCI communities. I think its true strength and appeal rests in the metaphor itself. So, if after reading Pirolli’s book you are interested in learning more about information foraging, I recommend the following two works. That is, if you haven’t read them already.
Pirolli, P. & Card, S. (1995) Information foraging in information access environments. Paper presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computer Systems, CHI-95, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Jacoby, J. (2005). Optimal foraging. In K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & L. E. F. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of Information Behavior (pp. 259-264). Medford, NJ: Information Today.
In addition, check out the concept of “incidental information acquisition” - sometimes incidental is replaced with unintended. It relates to information foraging by focusing on user context more than user interests. It differs arguably in that the information seeking process is more or less purposive at its most basic level during foraging, while not purposive in the latter - it is well, incidental as the phrase suggests. Personally I find reading the two points of view provides a nice balanced perspective on what stimulates a user’s “olfactory resources” when it comes to information behavior on the Web, or just about any information space for that matter.
Erdelez, S. (1997). Information encountering: A conceptual framework for accidental information discovery. In P. Vakkari, R. Savolainen, & B. Dervin (Eds.), Information seeking in context: Proceedings of international conference on research in information needs, seeking and use in different contexts (pp. 412 – 421). London: Taylor-Graham.
Savolainen, R. (1995). Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life.†Library and Information Science Research, 17, 259-294.
Spink, A., Ozmultu, S., & Ozmultu, H. C. (2002). Multitasking information seeking and searching processes. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53, 639-652.
Williamson, K. (1998). Discovered by chance: The role of incidental information acquisition in an ecological model of information use. Library and Information Science Research, 20(I), 23-40.
Posted on 10-Apr-07 at 2:33 pm | Permalink