Examining the impact of collaborative tagging on sensemaking in nutrition management

  • Authors:

  • Lena Mamykina;Andrew D. Miller;Catherine Grevet;Yevgeniy Medynskiy;Michael A. Terry;Elizabeth D. Mynatt;Patricia R. Davidson

  • Affiliations:

  • Columbia University, New York, New York, USA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada;Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;Cardiovascular Care Group, Belleville and St. Claires Hospital, Dover, New Jersey, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Collaborative tagging mechanisms are integral to social computing applications in a variety of domains. Their expected benefits include simplified retrieval of digital content, as well as enhanced ability of a community to makes sense of the shared content. We examine the impact of collaborative tagging in context of nutrition management. In a controlled experiment we asked individuals to assess the nutritional value of meals based on photographic images and observed the impact of different types of tags and tagging mechanisms on individuals nutritional sensemaking. The results of the study show that tags enhance individuals' ability to remember the viewed meals. However, we found that some types of tags can be detrimental to sensemaking, rather than supporting it. These findings stress the importance of tagging vocabularies and suggest a need for expert moderation of community sensemaking.