How People Approach Information

Abstract

Information interaction and interpretation will vary dependent on people’s goals and information needs. These differing goals and information needs shape what information is actually deemed important, and how hard people will work to understand it. As a result, information importance can also differ radically between people. In any particular situation, even after the information has been found and is being considered, factors inherent in human nature come into play to influence the interpretation. This chapter considers some of those factors influencing the ways people approach and interpret information. The white area in Figure 1 shows the area of the HII model relevant to this chapter.