Exploring How Muddled Information Needs Influence Learning Outcomes

A museum’s digital archive system collects information about cultural heritage and makes it accessible to the public. In this study, we aim to explore how users’ perceived information needs (PINs) influence their learning outcomes during the information search process for acquiring art-related knowledge from the museum. Specifically, we examined users’ search and learning behaviors on the digital archive systems for antiques at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. Three learning-related tasks were designed to assess users’ knowledge growth during the search process. We collected data from click behaviors, eye movement tracking, and users’ self-assessments of the task execution process to investigate the relationship between their information search process and their learning and meaning-making outcomes. We employed quantitative analysis and conducted qualitative interviews to gain a detailed understanding of users’ search behaviors and resource selection as they completed the tasks using the system. Finally, the research results can be used to characterize users’ search behaviors based on their PINs, providing insights for targeted system design.