Social Navigation of Information Space

There are many changes happening in the world of computers and communication media. The Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW), of course, are various aspects of this vast network of interlinked machines. Computers are becoming increasingly ubiquitous; they are “disappearing” into everyday objects. They are becoming increasingly small, so much so that some are now wearable. They are increasingly able to communicate with each other.

Collaborative filtering was proposed in the early 1990s as a way of managing access to large information spaces by capturing and exploiting aspects of the experiences of previous users of the same information. Social navigation is a more general form of this style of interaction, and with the widening scope of the Internet as an information provider, systems of this sort have moved rapidly from early research prototypes to deployed services in everyday use.

On the other hand, to most of the HCI community, the term “social navigation” is largely synonymous with “recommendation systems”: systems that match your interests to those of others and, on that basis, provide recommendations about such things as music, books, articles and films that you might enjoy. The challenge for social navigation, as an area of research and development endeavour, is to move beyond this rather limited view of the role; and to do this, we must try to take a broader view of both our remit and our opportunities.

This chapter will revisit the original motivations, and chart something of the path that recent developments have taken. Based on reflections upon the original concerns that motivated research into social navigation, it will explore some new avenues of research. In particular, it will focus on two: the first is social navigation within the framework of “awareness” provisions in collaborative systems generally; and the second is the relationship of social navigation systems to spatial models and the ideas of “space” and “place” in collaborative settings.

By exploring these two ideas, two related goals can be achieved. The first is to draw attention to ways in which current research into social navigation can be made relevant to other areas of research endeavour; and the second is to remotivate the idea of “social navigation” as a fundamental model for collaboration in information-seeking.

Future information systems will be populated information spaces. Users of these systems will be aware of the activities of others, and what information they find useful or not. They will be able to point out and share information easily and even guide each other. These systems therefore will be social spaces. People associate social connotations with various types of spaces. These social connotations raise expectations about appropriate behaviour, privacy, trust, and private or public space in these virtual communities. This chapter discusses the relationship between social navigation and spatial metaphors and how social connotations of spatial metaphors can influence social activities in virtual space. We discuss a number of open issues in virtual communities in general and social navigation in particular, that are related to social connotations. We also present a pilot study that indicates that social connotations are perceived differently in real and virtual spaces.

Two complementary schools of thought exist with regard to the basic underlying assumptions and philosophies that guide our research in information navigation and access. As with all of human-computer interaction (HCI), and indeed most of informatics, we can place theories and design practices based in objectivity and mathematics at one end of a spectrum, and those emphasising subjectivity and language at the other. The first school of thought sees itself as part of traditional computer science, rooted in models that encompass the individual variations of users and that are often derived from experimentation and observation in controlled conditions. Mainstream information retrieval, cognitive psychology and task analysis exemplify such a philosophy. Complementary views are held by those who hold the sociological and the semiological as primary, and consider that objective categorical models are insufficient to model the complexity of human activity and ultimately of limited utility in guiding system design and development. Collaborative filtering, ecological psychology and ethnography are examples here. The techniques and systems presented in this book do not all lie towards one end of this spectrum, but instead show a variety of choices and emphases. This chapter, however, focuses on theory firmly towards the subjective and linguistic end of the spectrum: tools to let us place, compare and design techniques and systems. Such theory is noticeable by its absence in the majority of literature in this burgeoning research area. Here we try to redress the balance, aiming to build up more abstract and general view of our work.

At the most applied level, this chapter deals with one approach to social information navigation systems, the path model [1], and describes its origin in an analogy with a theory of urban form: Hillier’s space syntax [2]. More generally, we relate the use of and movement through information to use and movement in urban space. While architecture has already affected informatics in a number of areas, for example, in the pattern languages of Alexander, here we use architecture as a stepping stone between linguistics and informatics. Through these links we wish to reinforce the view that all three are instances or subfields of semiology. In so doing, we aim to make more visible the range of assumptions and models that underlie all interactive information systems. We are often unaware of the models of knowledge and information that we build on, and the possible alternatives. Here we aim to make clearer some of those buried layers — the “archaeology of knowledge” [3] that determines many of the strengths and weaknesses of any systems for information navigation.

This chapter presents two empirical examples of information navigation work in organisational contexts. They show that information gains its relevance to any individual organisational actor in proportion to how actors in other organisations use that information. In this respect, it will argue that information is socially organised. The chapter will then discuss what implications this has for providing new sources of information and new information retrieval techniques with the World Wide Web.

The link between material arrangements, time, and people’s practices is complex. It has long been a concern for architects, landscape architects, and artists. Now, it has become a concern for the designers of virtual spaces in electronic media. However, there are substantial differences. The design of material arrangements in real spaces draws on the laws, patterns, and aesthetic principles of the real world with all its physical and cultural characteristics. “Material” arrangements in virtual space do not have to face many of these constraints. Yet, in order to be intelligible, virtual worlds have to exhibit at least some familiar features. An ethnographic study of people’s interactions with and in the real and virtual spaces of a media art exhibition in Germany has shed some light on possible principles for the design of electronic spaces. We combine this study with an analysis of empirical studies, and theoretical considerations of architectural design and its relation to use with a view to informing the design of electronic, “inhabitable information spaces”.

Collaborative virtual environments, such as multi-user domains (MUDs), chatrooms, or three-dimensional graphical environments, provide a common space for people to interact in, independent of geographical location. In this chapter we examine how the different metaphors used to represent two- and three-dimensional environments might influence interpersonal behaviours. We focus on behaviours related to navigation and positioning: (1) proxemics — the maintenance of personal space, (2) the signaling of private space and (3) the effects of crowding. We discover that the design of the three-dimensional space offers sociopetal spaces that encourage interaction, make clusters of actors easily visible and provide cues so that people maintain a sense of personal space. In both environments, adverse reactions to crowding occur. We suggest that differences in interpersonal behaviours may be influenced by embodiment (avatar) design features of the space and the number of other actors present. In a three-dimensional environment, these factors appear to influence navigation and positioning in the environment.

This chapter focuses on the World Wide Web (web) as a provider of shared information landscapes. It reviews our work to design three-dimensional spaces for information navigation and social interaction, and suggests an approach to such design based on an experiential theory of meaning. The increasing use of virtual three-dimensional space in information environments is noted, and personal spaces are contrasted with public places. Earlier work on information islands, vehicles and customisable views of such information spaces is also presented. The experiential approach, as applied to information landscape design, is contrasted with the traditional view of human-computer interaction (HCI) design as a means of conveying system functionality from the mind of the designer to that of the user. This experiential approach seems promising, if we assume that we do not know in advance what the functions of interactions in shared information spaces might be. As with life in general, such interactions mean what they are experienced to be.

In this chapter we examine how people think about the information space of the World Wide Web. We provide empirical evidence collected in interviews with beginning and experienced web users to show that much of people’s conceptual experience of the web is metaphorical and understood through the process of conceptual integration. We argue that designers of tools for navigation and collaboration in information space should consider how people experience web space, including the natural tendency to metaphorically construe information space in terms of physical space.

We begin by emphasising the need for clear definitions of terms such as browsing and navigation, which previously had been rather loosely described. Reasonably precise definitions are offered which have led to a new theoretical framework for navigation. The framework appears to be equally relevant to social as well as information navigation. An interesting contrast is drawn here between these two activities, speculating on some of the psychological processes involved. In both cases the navigational process comprises the four activities of browsing, modelling, interpretation and strategy formulation. These are set within a context determined by the user’s intent and the constraints and biases of the search domain. Differences are found in the properties of interest, the types of conscious and unconscious activities in which the person engages, and the affordances which are presented to the participant as opportunities for interaction.

To illustrate the differences, two specific scenarios are considered, namely navigation of information while searching for a house and navigation of a social space at a cocktail party. The navigational framework is examined in the context of these two interactions — informational and social. Examples are given of the four main activities and the affordances on which they operate. Comparisons and contrasts between possible computer-assisted versions of both scenarios are drawn. Interesting challenges for the support of social navigation emerge, where remote users can encounter each other across the Internet, e.g. as participants in virtual worlds. This seems a ripe field for further studies involving experts from psychology, sociology and anthropology.

In order to understand the characteristics of digital information spaces and the way they are being understood and manipulated by the user, it may be valuable to investigate how other forms of representations handle space. This chapter investigates six very common visualisation techniques used in mainstream cinema, and tries to find equivalent techniques in digital information spaces. Such a comparative study has to take into account the different functions cinema and computers are said to serve, as well as what kind of assumptions and knowledge the spectator/user brings into the situation. Throughout, implications for design are discussed.

Wearable computers are worn on the body and mostly hands-free computer systems. These new devices will facilitate new ways of supporting collaboration and social navigation in what we call wearable-supported collaborative work (WSCW). WSCW systems make it possible to remain closely in touch with the work while still accessing shared information resources and collaborating with others in the physical space augmented with information. Such systems are contrasted to the PC-based computer-supported co-operative work (CSCW) systems where the windowed interface is the main interaction channel. We discuss modes of usage, implications for communication, and illustrate this with scenarios from our work with tourist applications and police officers fieldwork. Finally some interesting areas for future WSCW research are given, and we outline some useful design components.

From the few evaluations of adaptive navigation systems that have been performed, we see an emerging pattern where, depending on the domain, only certain types of adaptive navigation strategies work. The results indicate that adaptations should leave the interface somewhat predictable, they should not force users to interpret advanced annotations, and finally, the adaptation should not change the structure of the information space. Furthermore, evaluations of adaptive navigation support systems fail to recognise some of the more important aspects of why certain systems provide better support than others do. These studies typically measure task completion time, or how well the structure of the space is remembered. While these are among the important measurements that should be taken, other features, such as how much anxiety the system induces in users, how pleasant it is to navigate, or how much users actually learn of the information contained in the space, might be more crucial measurements.

This chapter describes work in progress on a new way of approaching social navigation (e.g. [1, 2]) through the use of populated, growing, knowledge gardens. These shared virtual landscapes provide an online space where people communicate and information can be “tended” through the affordances of an ecological metaphor. If we define social navigation as “finding things or going to places via, or with, other people”, and take that the whole process of categorising and finding information is a largely social process, then these Arcadian landscapes can provide a useful approach to social navigation in co-operative information applications.