The present study reports on the information seeking processes in a visual context, referred to throughout as visual information seeking. This study synthesizes research throughout different, yet complementary, areas, each capable of contributing findings and understanding to visual information seeking. Methods previously applied for examining the visual information seeking process are reviewed, including interactive experiments, surveys, and various qualitative approaches. The methods and resulting findings are presented and structured according to generalized phases of existing information seeking models, which include the needs, actions, and assessments of users. A review of visual information needs focuses on need and thus query formulation; user actions, as reviewed, centers on search and browse behaviors and the observed trends, concluded by a survey of users' assessments of visual information as part of the interactive process. This separate examination, specific to a visual context, is significant; visual information can influence outcomes in an interactive process and presents variations in the types of needs, tasks, considerations, and decisions of users, as compared to information seeking in other contexts.

User-centered analysis can benefit the development of interactive video digital libraries. Findings from this study support the idea that having additional understanding about the intended users of video digital libraries can help researchers match system designs with the envisioned use of prototype systems. This study examines one user-centered factor specifically, familiarity with visual search topics, to explore if and how this may be associated with other factors within an interactive video retrieval context. Twenty-eight users from the field of science education were recruited to complete six visual search topics using a prototype system to retrieve video clips from a collection of NASA Science Education Programs. Analysis revealed that topic familiarity was associated with other factors that were examined throughout this study, including user-assessed and experimenterassessed topic completion ratios, opinions of the prototype system, and interaction behaviors. Such results can have a variety of implications for developing video digital libraries, especially those designed to support queries and interactions of knowledgeable users from a defined domain.

This study investigates interactive video retrieval. The basis for this study is that user-and search task-centric research in video information retrieval can assist efforts for developing effective user interfaces and help complement the existing corpus of video retrieval research by providing evidence for the benefits of evaluating systems using such an approach. Accordingly, the results were collected and analyzed from the perspective of certain users and search tasks (i.e., information needs). The methodology of this study employed specially designed interactive search experiments to examine a number of different factors in a video retrieval context, including those that correspond to search tasks of a particular domain, interface features and functions, system effectiveness, and user interactions. The results indicated that the use and effectiveness of certain interface features and functions were dependent on the type of search task, while others were more consistent across the full experiment. Also included is a review of prior research pertaining to visual search tasks, systems development, and user interaction. ViewFinder, the prototype system used to carry out the interactive search experiments of this study, is fully described.

The overarching goal of this study is to place additional emphasis on the ability to observe, extend, and apply findings across different experimental studies and/or digital projects by providing further insight into some of the broader processes within interactive (user-centered) video retrieval. The variable at the center of this particular investigation included a user-centered definition of topic complexity, or "situated topic complexity," where its influence on other factors within the interactive video process, namely users' actions, satisfaction, performance, and judgments on other topical qualities, was analyzed. Findings revealed that as users' impressions of complexity increased during experimental search topics, search times and the number of user actions also increased, but even more compelling was the fact that users started to convincingly shift away from keyword (transcript) searching, as predominantly used for easy to moderate topics, to categorical and linear browse strategies at a clear point within the interactive process. Different users' assessments, regarding their search experiences, and topic performances were also varied and shown to be significantly correlated with the situated complexity of a given topic. Such findings are relevant to the design of digital libraries in that researchers should continue improving ways to deliver video through keyword search functions, but also further recognize the multidimensionality of video by offering other paths or interface options that provide support for highly complex needs and also for exploring the collection's boundaries on easier topics.

Information seeking research has provided models of users in the search for information across many different contexts and situations. Digital content curation has emerged as a means for managing information and facilitating user learning by adding ‘value’ to digital content in different ways, enhancing the user experience. Using digital video and K–12 education as the context, this study examined factors representing video information seeking, user learning and use of curated video collections both individually and together as user-centred constructs. Two hundred and fifty-two K–12 teachers provided perceptions of their own information seeking processes and for different qualities of curated content and collections within the context of searching digital video for applied purposes. Results extracted underlying factors of these concepts and demonstrated significant relationships between them. Findings enabled the expansion of a model to incorporate both users’ perceptions of information seeking together with user-centred constructs of learning through added value content and use of curated digital collections. Practical implications of the study help establish baselines for future studies for formulating, incorporating and emphasising added value and video curation qualities based on users’ information seeking within the process.