What is the shape of information?: human factors in the development and use of digital libraries

• Authors: Andrew Dillon
• Venue: ACM SIGOIS Bulletin - Special issue on digital libraries
• Year: 1995

At Indiana, we are currently investigating several aspects of electronic document usage that relate to the organization of information in digital environments. This work is collectively referred to under the heading: the perception of shape in information. The aim of this research is to identify aspects of presentation that afford users with a sense of location and order in electronic space, and to transfer these findings to developers of digital library applications. As well as empirical research, SLIS is involved in the development of a number of practical projects involving the campus libraries utilizing sociotechnical approaches to design (e.g., Eason, 1988), but it is the research component of our efforts that will be emphasized here.A unified perspective for this work is provided by the TIMS framework (Dillon, 1994) which is derived from studies of user interaction with electronic and paper documents. The framework is intended to be an approximate representation of the human cognition and behaviour central to the reading or information usage process.The framework focuses attention on all aspects of hypermedia design that are likely to impact the user - from an understanding of their tasks to low level ergonomic issues of screen design and typography. In particular, current research is focusing on aspects of the Information Model component, with emphasis on the issues of navigation, salience and structure in WWW environments, and the use of dynamics to enhance usability. Finally, the present work is being related to broader issues of technology acceptance, through the application of Davis et al's (1989) Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in the context of WWW applications. In the present document, a snapshot of this research is presented; the reader should note however that this work is part of the broader research program on digital library usability ongoing here in Indiana.