Envisioning the Web: User Expectations about the Cyber-experience.

Abstract

An exploratory research project was undertaken to understand how novice college students and Web savvy librarians initially envisioned the Internet and how these representations changed over time and with experience. Users ' representation of the Internet typically contained few meaningful reference points excepting "landmarks" such as search sites and frequently visited sites. For many of the users, the representation was largely procedural, and therefore organized primarily by time. All novice users conceptualized search engines as literally searching the entire Internet when a query was issued. Web savvy librarians understood the limitations of search engines better, but did still expect search engines to follow familiar organizational schemes and to indicate their cataloguing system. Although all users initially approached the Internet with high expectations of information credibility, expert users learned early on that "anyone can publish. " In response to the lack of clear credibility conventions, librarians applied the same criteria they used with traditional sources. However, novice users retained high credibility expectations because their exposure was limited to the subscription-based services within their college library. And finally, during an assigned search task new users expected "step by step " instructions and self-evident cues to interaction. They were also overwhelmed and confused by the amount of information "help " displayed and became impatient when a context appropriate solution to their problem was not immediately offered.

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