Conceptual misfits in email-based current awareness interaction
Attfield, Simon 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9374-2481 and Blandford, Ann
(2010)
Conceptual misfits in email-based current awareness interaction.
Journal of Documentation, 67
(1)
.
pp. 33-55.
ISSN 0022-0418
[Article]
(doi:10.1108/00220411111105443)
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Abstract
Purpose - This research aims to identify some requirements for supporting user interactions with electronic current-awareness alert systems based on data from a professional work environment.
Design/methodology/approach - Qualitative data was gathered using contextual inquiry observations with twenty-one workers at the London office of an international law firm. The analysis uses CASSM (‘Concept-based Analysis of Surface and Structural Misfits’), a usability evaluation method structured around identifying mismatches, or ‘misfits’, between user-concepts and concepts represented within a system.
Findings - Participants were frequently overwhelmed by email alerts, and a key requirement is to support efficient interaction. Several misfits which act as barriers to efficient reviewing and follow-on activities are demonstrated. These relate to a lack of representation of key user-concepts at the interface and/or within the system, including alert items and their properties, source documents, ‘back-story’, primary sources, content categorisations and user collections.
Research limitations/implications - Given these misfits we derive a set of requirements to improve the efficiency with which users can achieve key outcomes with current-awareness information as these occur within a professional work environment.
Originality/value - The findings will be of interest to current-awareness providers. The approach is relevant to information interaction researchers interested in deriving design requirements from naturalistic studies
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Research Areas: | A. > School of Science and Technology > Computer Science |
| Item ID: | 6793 |
| Notes on copyright: | Author's post refereed version hosted as allowed by publisher. |
| Useful Links: | |
| Depositing User: | Repository team |
| Date Deposited: | 04 Jan 2011 12:10 |
| Last Modified: | 30 Nov 2022 01:10 |
| URI: | https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/id/eprint/6793 |
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