understanding the everyday use of images on the web
DESCRIPTION
This was presented at NordiCHI 2010 along with Jennifer Rode from Drexel. It was based on my diary study of nine participants regarding their use of images on the Internet. I'm planning to give a similar talk on the subject, aimed at a more commercial audience. Blog post here: http://boonyew.com/interaction/2010/10/28/why-we-use-images-on-the-internet/TRANSCRIPT
Understanding the Everyday Use of Images on the Internet
Boon Chew, Jennifer Rode, Abigail Sellen
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Project Aims
• Research Question: Understand how people use images on the Internet in their everyday lives
• Goal: Create a framework for understanding the motivations for everyday image use
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Literature Review
• Classifying Search Behavior:– Directed v.s. exploratory search [Dumais et al, 2009;
Marchionini, 1995]
• Studies of Image Use:– By professional images [Armitage et al, 1997; Choi & Rasmussen,
2003; Markkula & Sormunen, 2000; Westman & Oittinen, 2006]
– Studies of photowork and personal photos [Kirk et al, 2006; Graham et al, 2002; Rodden et al, 2003; Miller & Edwards, 2007]
– Goodrum & Spink’s analyses of image search logs [2001]
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Method: Diary Study
• 1st phase: Initial interviews• 2nd phase:
– Participants logged activities involving images (excluding personal photos)
– Periodic interviews to discuss tasks, goals, and motivations
• 3rd phase: final interview
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Participants
• 9 participants recruited via snowball sampling• Ages 24 to 59• 5 females / 4 males• Occupations:
housewife, student, retired lawyer,
bookshop asst., graphic artist,
recruiter, civil servant,
accountant, blogger
Analysis Technique
• Grounded Theory• Coding based on image use motivations• 13 sub-categories• Four high-level categories
– Learning & Research– Image Access as Secondary Goals– Recreating/Connecting to Remote Experiences– Images as Objects of Communication
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Findings
• Everyday Image use activities consist of:– 10% Image search tools i.e. Google Images– 17% Social networking sites, – 7% Maps– 16% News sites– 50% Domain-specific sites (e.g. company websites, e-
commerce, interest sites such as photography)
Analysis Technique
• Learning & Research• Image Access as Secondary Goals• Recreating/Connecting to Remote Experiences• Images as Objects of Communication
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Learning and Research
– Images to Support ongoing interests or research– Images to satisfy curiosity– Images for visual discovery– Images as ideas
> Findings
Images as Support Ongoing Interests or Research:
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> Findings > Learning and Research > Examples
“Gracia explained how she was looking for new work from [photographer A] on his Website. She found some new art there, then started searching for more of his work on Google Images, which she said was easier as it catches her attention.” (Fieldnotes for PS-CF-5)
Images to Satisfy Curiosity:
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> Findings > Learning and Research > Examples
Images for Visual Discovery:
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> Findings > Learning and Research > Examples
Images as Ideas:
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> Findings > Learning and Research > Examples
“There were a lot of beautiful images on this blog — she would look at the images before reading the content, as the images were very important to her. She visits the blog regularly because she wants to update herself about DIY, recycling and design.” (Fieldnotes for PS-CF-3)
Image Access as Secondary Goals
– Images as Alternative Answers– Images as Aids for Geographical Orientation– Images as Indexes
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> Findings >
Images as Alternative Answers:
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> Findings > Secondary Goals > Examples
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Images as Aids for Geographical Orientation:
> Findings > Secondary Goals > Examples
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Images as Indexes: the “right” DVD cover
> Findings > Secondary Goals > Example
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Recreating or Connecting to Remote Experiences
– Images for connecting to remote places– Images for re-living past experiences– Images for connecting to people and their lives– Images to connect to personalities
> Findings
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Connecting to Remote Places> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples
Images for re-living past experiences
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> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples
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Images for Connecting to People & their Lives:
• Connecting to Family via Flickr:“...her sister was involved in a fashion
show recently and so might have uploaded some photos… She uses Flickr as a way of checking up with her sister....”
(Fieldnotes for PS-CF-4)
> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples
Images to connect to personalities
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> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples
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Discussion
• Image search tool v/s browsing the familiar• Moved past keyword relevance & ranking
accuracy to everyday use.• Allowed us to understand activities that existing
tools do not support since they have a traditional search model of image use.
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Implications for Design
• Search tools could explicitly support these types of image use, e.g.– For ‘Learning and research” supporting the context of
exploratory search in particular is required. – To support ‘Images as a Secondary Goal” efficiency,
accuracy and consistency are critical.• Images could just be a waypoint on way to goal.• Images as indexes could explicitly be used a navigation
elements.
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Implications for Design
• To support “Designing for Recreating or Connecting to Remote Experiences”– Increased fidelity to support to aid in recall recognition
and simulate emotions– Means of evocatively capture and annotate experience
with richness
Future Work
• Studies to understand the relative frequency and values place on these types of image use
• Creating tool to support these types of image use• Need to integrate our findings to broaden formal
models of image search.
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Conclusions
• Image search as typified by Google or Bing! is only one type of image search
• Created a taxonomy of image use to explain image use
• Context is critical to future design
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Discussion
• Image search tool v/s browsing the familiar• Moved past keyword relevance & ranking
accuracy to everyday use.• Allowed us to understand activities that existing
tools do not support since they have a traditional search model of image use.
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Implications for Design
• Search tools could explicitly support these types of image use– E.g. For images as a secondary efficiency, accuracy
and consistency are critical.• Images could just be a waypoint on way to goal.• Images as indexes could explicitly be used a navigation
elements.
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Questions?
Boon Yew Chew [email protected]
Jennifer Rode [email protected]
Abigail Sellen [email protected]
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Extra Slides
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Images as Objects of Communication
– Images to do the work of communication– Images for social interaction
> Findings
Images to Do the Work of Communication
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> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples
Images for Social Interaction
• Fieldnotes for Tom: The object of the game, played twice weekly, is to identify an obscure person based only on a photo. The person with the correct guess then uploads the next picture. While Tom was on the site, he clicked on other thumbnails of obscure people that looked interesting. There was one of Mae Busch, which looked interesting because you could barely recognize the person. In fact, he enlarged the photo so he could identify the person better.
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> Findings > Remote Experiences > Examples