Systems development and information seeking behavior : A study of the relationship between information seeking behavior and the development of information systems

• This paper will discuss the relationship between the areas of informati on needs and uses, and development of information systems. Empirical studies made in three different government agencies (about 150 interviews), form a basis for the discussion. This work takes an inductive qualitatative approach. The first step has been to try to get an understanding of why users in particular situations seek information from certain kinds of information sources and neglect others. What are the factors that play a role in explaining a user's in formation seeking behaviour? Based on my reflections on results from ot her research, and my own work, I have identified factors in the user's environment (context) which can contribute to explain users' information seeking behaviour. One result of my work is a model showing components (factors)of the context that influence users' information seeking behaviour. In an effort to pave the way for a better usage of insights from the area information needs and uses, when information systems are to be develope or improved, it is shown that it is important to clarify what kind of information a system should handle. In this work I have therefore specified and defined types of information, in a holistic way, according to function in an organization . These types are: operative, directive, supporting, state-of-the art, feed-back and private information. The conditions for developing information systems differ according to the type of information considered. Another imported reason for specifying types of information here is that the different types often are interrelated. In this study it has been found that one reason why knowledge from the area of information needs and uses ought to be of great interest when systems improvement is considered, is that the context, i. e. where the information system is to be or has been developed, is changing and complex. The rate of change and complexity is apparently increasing. And how do we handle change and complexity? The only way is by understanding its nature. The contextual model that has already been mentioned can be seen as one contribution to a better undertanding of user's behaviour in seeking information. In an effort to bring about a better understanding of the consequences of change and complexity for an information system, this paper specifies relationships involving the following concepts: -factors of importance when the usability of an information source is valued by a user (usability) - factors of importance when an information source is to be selected or not by a user (selection) -factors that contribute to trigger a user to search for information (triggering).

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Information Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Computer and systems science

Data- och systemvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

rap (ämneskategori)