🤔💥 You think clearly worded questions lead to better answers? Our research suggests: not necessarily. 🤯
On June 18, Information Science Regensburg will take part in the iSchools Got Talent Series.
🎤 Our PhD candidate Melanie A. Kilian will present her work on dysfunctional information requests, recently published in the JASIST (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster).
Talk Title:
Right Answers to Wrong Questions: The Dysfunctional Nature of Information Needs
Abstract:
Typos, blurry terms, missing details: Information systems, including search engines and chatbots, use query-repair strategies mainly to fix unclear user questions. This can be a problem. Imagine a query that is perfectly clear, well-worded, and seemingly reasonable – a query, such as “Where’s the nearest Italian restaurant?” Now imagine that this perfectly clear query is based on a misconception; the asker misunderstands what they need to know. As an example: The person asking for the nearest Italian restaurant would like to enjoy a pizza mallorquina, which is actually a Spanish dish. The perfectly clear query will, however, likely produce a pinpoint answer from the system referring to the nearest Italian restaurant. Mission failed.
In a grounded-theory-interview study with airport information clerks, we discovered this phenomenon. Our findings show that perceived information needs can present a counterproductive basis for task support and invite you to rethink the emphasis on user requests in information systems design.
Event details: https://www.ischools.org/event-details/ischools-got-talent-2026-2026-06-18-13-00 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)
🙏 Many thanks to iSchools Inc. (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) and Anika Meyer for organizing the series.
📖 JASIST article: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.70010 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster)
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