Design of model-based interfaces for a real world information system

Information seeking is fundamentally a situated cognitive activity where user´s cognitive capabilities and limitations, the work domain and task context, and the content and form of medium, influence the process. We used questionnaire responses, field studies of real-world professionals, and cognitive modeling techniques to collect data about the complex information-seeking process under real conditions, to develop a knowledge base for principled design, and to create a cognitive model of information seeking in a corporate environment. We describe the design and evaluation of task-based personalized search form interfaces based on the cognitive model. Results show that search forms personalized for the individual searcher improve performance over those interfaces that are mismatched to searcher´s characteristics. Further, findings show that information source selection is critical in enhancing the effectiveness of information retrieval in real-world electronic information systems