Exploring the context of visual information seeking
| Published date | 04 June 2018 |
| Pages | 445-456 |
| Date | 04 June 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-03-2017-0054 |
| Author | Shahram Sedghi,Zeinab Shormeij,Iman Tahamtan |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Exploring the context of visual
information seeking
Shahram Sedghi and Zeinab Shormeij
Department of Library and Medical Information Sciences,
School of Health Management and Information Sciences,
Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, I.R. Iran, and
Iman Tahamtan
School of Information Sciences, College of Communication and Information,
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Abstract
Purpose – Information seeking is an interactive behaviour of the end users with information systems,
which occurs in a real environment known as context. Context affects information-seeking behaviour in many
different ways. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that potentially constitute the context of
visual information seeking.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors used a Straussian version of grounded theory, a
qualitative approach, to conduct the study. Using a purposive sampling method, 28 subjects participated in
the study. The data were analysed using open, axial and selective coding in MAXQDA software.
Findings – The contextual factors inuencing visual information seeking were classied into seven
categories, including: “user characteristics”, “general search features”, “visual search features”, “display of
results”, “accessibility of results”, “task type” and “environmental factors”.
Practical/implications – This study contributes to a better understanding of how people conduct searches
in and interact with visual search interfaces. Results have important implications for the designers of information
retrieval systems.
Originality/value – This paper is among the pioneer studies investigating contextual factors inuencing
information seeking in visual information retrieval systems.
Keywords Information retrieval, Context, User studies, Human–computer interaction,
Information-seeking behaviours, Visual information systems
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Understanding context is important for obtaining a better knowledge of individual
information activities (Starasts, 2015). Thus, it is important to know what elements create
the context, how context is understood (Courtright, 2007) and how the information process
relates to its context (Kari and Savolainen, 2007). Nevertheless, there is not a strong
consensus on what constitutes a context, and what relationships exist between individuals’
information seeking and its context (Chang and Lee, 2001). The importance of context in
information-seeking behaviour and the information retrieval (IR) (Kelly, 2006) as well as the
importance of understanding information seeking within different contexts has been
The present article is part of a research project entitled “Examining contextual factors aecting
information-seeking behaviour of users in interaction with visual search in the EBSCOhost” funded
by Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2013.
Conict of interest: The authors declare no conict of interest.
Visual
information
seeking
445
Received 15 March 2017
Revised 30 July 2017
Accepted 23 August 2017
The Electronic Library
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2018
pp. 445-456
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-03-2017-0054
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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