Search Situations and Transitions

Several studies of Web information searching (Agosto, 2002, Pharo & Järvelin, 2006, Prabha et al. 2007) have pointed out that searchers tend to satisfice. This means that, instead of planning for optimal search outcomes based on the best available knowledge, and on choosing the best information sources for their purpose, they aim at obtaining satisfactory results with a minimum of effort. Thus it is necessary to study other factors than the information needs and sources to explain Web search behaviour. Web information search processes are influenced by the interplay of factors at the micro-level and we need to understand how search process related factors such as the actions performed by the searcher on the system are influenced by various factors, e.g. those related to the searcher’s work task, search task, knowledge about the work task or searching etc. The Search Situation Transition (SST) method schema provides a framework for such analysis.