LIS 386.13 User Perspective

THE USER PERSPECTIVE

The user perspective is among the most powerful and contentious concepts in Information Studies. Among other things, it is mutually defining with concepts of what information is and what communication is.

DERVIN & NILAN (1986, 16) "Traditional" User Research

Information is objective

Users are input-output processors of information

Search for trans-situational analysis of users

Emphasis on external dimensions of behavior and events

Focus is on the information system

"Alternative" User Research

Information is constructed by human beings

Focus on information use in particular, specific situations

Focus on the user

Asks "how" questions, e.g., how do people define their needs in different situations? How do they search for information? How do they use information?

MACHLUP'S (1980) CATEGORIES OF KNOWLEDGE

Practical knowledge -- instrumental, useful in work
Intellectual knowledge -- satisfying academic or scientific curiosity
Small-talk, pastime knowledge -- non-intellectual curiosity, emotional
Spiritual knowledge -- religious
Unwanted knowledge -- outside one's interest; often linked to information overload

MACMULLIN & TAYLOR (1984)

In context of "paradigmatic shift," they assert the primacy of user needs.

LIS should, therefore, concentrate on users' task, goals, and problems. Emphasis of the field should not be on collections, artifacts, and institutions, nor on specific questions or queries put to information systems however construed.

Information plays a number of roles -- it informs, activates, instructs, provides precision, generates ideas, triggers the imagination, and gives pleasure.
These ideas lead MacMullin & Taylor to develop typologies for information traits (what information is like) and problems (what problems are like).

Information traits, "as characteristic of stored information as are subject descriptions" (MacMullin & Taylor,1984, 101); remember these are continua.

Quantitative.......................................	Qualitative
Hard data..........................................	Soft data
Historical...........................................	Forecasting
Single solution....................................	Option range
Precise focus.....................................	Diffused focus
Applied use.......................................	Theoretical use
Applied form and content...................	Theoretical form and content
Clinical (case study)...........................	Census
Causal..............................................	Diagnostic

Problem dimensions "are those characteristics that, beyond specific subject matter, establish the criteria for judging the relevance of information to a problem or class of problems"

(MacMullin & Taylor, 1984, 102); remember these are continua.

Design..............................................	Discovery
Well-structured.................................	Ill-structured
Complex...........................................	Simple
Specific goals....................................	Amorphous goals
Initial state understood......................	Initial state not understood
Assumptions agreed upon.................	Assumptions not agreed upon
Assumptions explicit..........................	Assumptions implicit
Familiar patterns...............................	.New patterns
Risk great.........................................	Risk not great
Susceptible to empirical analysis........	Not susceptible to empirical analysis
Internal imposition.............................	External imposition

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