Information Users and Information System Design

Among the many books on computer interfaces and user experience design, there are few that address the specific circumstances, psychology, and design requirements for information searching. In Information Users and Information System Design, Professor Marcia Bates of UCLA's Department of Information Studies has collected sixteen of her major papers on information seeking and interaction, and the associated user-centered design of information systems. Good information system design requires attention to the social context of the search, the cognitive patterns of needing and searching for information, the selection and presentation of indexing and search capabilities in the interface for the user, and the proper selection and organization of the resources to be contained in the information database. Effects of every layer of design cascade through to the interface, either enabling fun and effective information searching, or blocking it. Bates' popular articles "Information Behavior," "Where Should the Person Stop and the Information Search Interface Start?", and "Toward an Integrated Model of Information Seeking and Searching" are included. This is Volume III of three containing selected works by Bates. The others are titled: Information and the Information Professions (Vol. I) and Information Searching Theory and Practice (Vol. II).