Information Horizons: a new technique

Users information behavior - what are the users information needs and goal, what is the content that is relevant, and what are the patterns that provide the ability to meet those needs?

Beyond this, what is the context this fits within? What are the users understanding of the web site and how does it compare to other sites?
So this technique is designed to bridge these two, at a inexpensive cost and low learning curve.

Need a better approach to get at this bigger picture than focus groups.

Information Horizons approach.
Based on book published in 2005. Theory proposed by Diane Sanderburg. They took this concept from the theory and developed a method to use it.

Format 1 interviewee, 1 interviewer.
Equipment: 1 large posterboard, markers to draw on the board

Steps:
1 - draw yourself in the middle of the paper. Provide the context you are asking for - do not provide specific type or site or anything - similar to a scenario. So "Recall an incident where you were trying to find information on a company"
Then have them talk about the experience, have them tell you a story.
Use the paper to show the resources. Use one color for these resources.

2 - change colors, and expand the experience - generalize the experience. By starting with a specific situation, you ground the context in reality. Now you are expanding into a more general situation, so they will do a better job. Add the target site at this point. Probe on it a bit.

3 - now probe onto the surprising serendipitous places they find information. Places that they look or found information elsewhere that was unexpected.

Analysis - look for where the target site appears in the drawing, early or late. You are gathering contextual information around this.
Detailed analysis - review recorded sessions, do content analysis, look for major themes.

This looks like a simple technique we could bring inside and start to use. I will ask the presenters for their slides.