1,464
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares

      Celebrating 65 years of The Computer Journal - free-to-read perspectives - bcs.org/tcj65

      scite_
       
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Conference Proceedings: found
      Is Open Access

      Effects of Low & High Literacy on User Performance in Information Search and Retrieval

      proceedings-article
      ,
      People and Computers XXII Culture, Creativity, Interaction (HCI)
      Computers XXII Culture, Creativity, Interaction
      1 - 5 September 2008
      Low and high literacy, Information search task, Information search, Information retrieval
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            This study was part of research into understanding the nature of how low literacy users search for and retrieve information, and to therefore develop systems and user interface designs that would empower low literacy users to find information they need in the rapidly evolving e-government and e-social services environment. We compared information search and retrieval performance between high and low literacy users of a Citizens Advice Bureau information kiosk system in the UK. The kiosk provided self-help information in a number of social services areas. Six high literacy and six low literacy users were presented with information search tasks classified as having low, medium and high complexity. Key results indicate that (i) low literacy users take eight times more time than high literacy users to complete an information search task, and yet were significantly less accurate, (ii) low literacy users on average spent one-third more time on a web page than high literacy users, but did not seem to be informed by it, (iii) low literacy users employed a much less focused information search strategy than high literacy users visiting eight times more web pages in total, (iv) low literacy users back-tracked 13 times more frequently than high literacy users, and are four times more likely to re-visit web pages, and (v) low literacy users are 13 times more likely to be lost than high literacy users.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Conference
            September 2008
            September 2008
            : 173-181
            Affiliations
            [0001]Interaction Design Centre

            School of Computing Science

            Middlesex University, London, UK

            +44 (0)79 31800 0357
            Article
            10.14236/ewic/HCI2008.17
            b42e8352-8f1c-49c2-a33c-142f64f8e556
            © Neesha Kodagoda et al. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. People and Computers XXII Culture, Creativity, Interaction

            This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

            People and Computers XXII Culture, Creativity, Interaction
            HCI
            22
            Conference Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
            1 - 5 September 2008
            Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)
            Computers XXII Culture, Creativity, Interaction
            History
            Product

            1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

            Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2008.17
            Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/
            Categories
            Electronic Workshops in Computing

            Applied computer science,Computer science,Security & Cryptology,Graphics & Multimedia design,General computer science,Human-computer-interaction
            Low and high literacy,Information search task,Information search,Information retrieval

            Comments

            Comment on this article