Think-aloud studies of information behaviour

Note: this talk will be part of the UCLDH Painless Introduction series starting in the new academic year, October 2011

In this Painless Introduction, Stephann Makri will discuss and reflect on the decisions made when planning and conducting a think-aloud study of lawyers' interactive information behaviour.

Many user-centred studies of electronic information resources include a think-aloud element - where users are asked to verbalise their thoughts, interface actions and sometimes their feelings whilst using digital libraries to help them complete one or more information tasks. These studies are usually conducted with the purpose of identifying usability issues related to the system(s) used or understanding aspects of users' information behaviour. However, few of these studies present detailed accounts of how their think-aloud data was collected and analysed or provide detailed reflection on their methodologies.

Stephann Makri is a Research Associate at the UCL Interaction Centre. His research seeks to understand how people acquire, interpret and use information in the context of their work and how this understanding is fed into the design and evaluation of interactive information resources. He is currently working on a UK Research Council funded project called SerenA: Chance Encounters in the Space of Ideas, which aims to gain an understanding of peoples' experiences of serendipity and to inform the design of ubiquitous computing environments that aim to make connections between people, information and ideas.