1. Information-seeking
behaviors among
professional users of
industrial equipment
Jonatan Lundin,
Industrial Ph.D. student, Mälardalen University

2. Agenda
Today, my aim is to:
• Introduce you to my research project: the underlying
problems, research purpose and research questions.
• Briefly describe a theoretical system model of activity,
used as a framework to for example understand my
research focus, define and explain the terms I use and
understand the design of empirical studies and
interprets its result.
• Present some results from the ongoing research and
discuss the results.
2

3. 3
Jonatan Lundin, who lives in Västerås:
• Has worked as technical communicator for 20 years (information
architect): DITA, XML topic based authoring etc. Currently a position
as information architect at Excosoft (part time 50%).
• Is a part time (50%) industrial Ph.D. student at Mälardalen University
(MDH). Started 1st of Sep 2011.
• Belongs to MDH research area Innovation and Product Realization
(IPR) – which aims at conducting research on how to develop
sustainable, useful and competitive products.
• Is part of research group Design and Visualization within IPR, where
(Jonatans) research subject is Innovation and design.
• Is studying information-seeking behaviors among professional
knowledge workers (engineers) in a product usage context.
• Is supervised by Prof. Ph.D. Yvonne Eriksson.
Who is Jonatan Lundin?

4. Problem statements from an
industrial point of view
4
B
C
D
E
F
A
Effective work time
for product user
Manual is
helping
0 %
100 %
Other work
tasks
Information-
seeking
related to
product use
Information-
seeking not
related to
product use
Product manufacturing company resources Product customer company resources
Manual is
not helping
Other
sources
are helping
Other
sources
are not
helping
Internal
sources
are helping
Internal
sources
are not
helping

5. Problem statements from an
academic point of view
• There is a lack of knowledge in library and information science
research field regarding:
• If and how professional knowledge workers (such as service
engineers), seek and search for information to be able to
perform role related work tasks in an daily (practical, routine)
industrial work context.
• Why service engineers seek the type of information they seek
and why they select the information sources they select.
5

6. Research questions (lic)
Licentiate thesis aims at answering the following research questions:
1. How do professional users of industrial equipment (such as
service engineers) seek information in a daily (practical, routine)
industrial work task context?
2. Why do users of industrial equipment display a particular
information-seeking goal and why do they select the information
sources they select, to be able to perform a work tasks in an daily
industrial work context?
6

7. Research goal and purpose (lic)
7
Problem
statements
Research
initiative/
project
Research goal (objective):
To describe how and explain
why users seek information.
Expected result
(scientific point of view):
Academic contribution describing
and explaining information-
seeking behaviors among users
of industrial products. Incl.
taxonomy classification,
discussions and problematization.
How are results intended/expected to be used?
Problem statement (industry and scientific point of view)
• Lack of knowledge in library and information science field regarding information-
seeking behaviors among users of technical products.
• Manufacturing companies do not know if investment in documentation is returned.
• Customer companies suspect that product usage situation is ineffective.Industrial
context
Scientific
context
Industry
To inform and educate
technical communicators,
to inform work place
information system
designers.
Scientific
To extend, inform and contribute with new
knowledge to scientific community (mainly
library and information science) about
information-seeking behaviors among
engineers using technical products.
Expected outcome
of result usage
Research
purpose
Industry
Reduce impact of industrial
problems. Make Swedish
industry more competitive.
Scientific
Make researchers aware of
need to study users of
technical products.

8. Population of interest
R&D
Operator
Product/
component manufacturer
Customer
support
Integration/
delivery
project
Mainten.
support
Plant/system/product builder Plant/system/product owner
Integration
equipment
8
Service
engineer
Maintenance
support
Operator
Service
engineer
Service
engineer
Ledgend:
Population of interest
Company AB Company ABCompany AB
Company AB
Service
engineer
R&D
Customer
support
Manu-
facturing Sales
Manufacturing
equipment
Operator
Service
engineer

9. Activity system model (1)
9
Subject
Need
Need
Need
Activity
Some need are motives
that induces/energizes.
Decision to act.
Goal:
An image of future desired result
Task/
action
Task/
action
Sub goal Sub goal
Result
(outcome of activity)
Example: Do corrective maintenance (work task)
Initial state of (real
world) object
Tool Tool Final state of (real
world) object
Orientation phase Execution phase Evaluation phase
t

10. Activity system model (2)
10
Subject
Activity (task/action level)
Example: Do corrective maintenance (work task)
Q1: visceral
need. Feeling of
uncertainty.
Q2: Conscious need.
Ambiguous and rambling
statement. Consciousness
that information is missing.
Conscious need is to
reduce” information
uncertainty” which is a
motive to seek info.
Decisiontoseekinfo
Information-
seeking activity
Need
Orientation phase Execution phase Evaluation phase
t
Information-
seeking activity
may “start” from
any phase
New
information/knowledge
is used in work activity

11. Activity system model (3)
11
Subject
Need Information-
seeking
activity
Goal:
An image of future desired result
Search
task
Result
(outcome of activity)
Initial state of
(real world) object
Final state of
(real world) object
Orientation phase Execution phase Evaluation phase
t
Work activity Continue work task or change task program
Use
task

12. Activity system model (4)
12
Subject
Search task
Initial state of
(real world) object
Final state of
(real world) object
Orientation
phase
Execution
phase
Evaluation
phase
Data in database memory
Information on screen
Work activity
Information-
seeking activity
Question or query to object/tool
Q3/Q4: Formalized and
compromised need.
Action 1 Action 2 Action 3
Goal:
An image of future desired result
Relevance
judgment
No
Self regulation
of search task
Tool
Yes
Use task
(memorize/
interpret/
internalize)
Search task is to find the information source and find within the source

13. Empirical data collection questions
13
Work activity
Information-seeking activity
Goal:
An image of future desired result
Search task,
where selected
source is used
Orientation phase Execution phase Evaluation phase
Orientation phase
Incl. source
selection
Execution phase Evaluation phase
Explanatory:
Why do service engineers
display a certain
information-seeking goal?
Descriptive:
What information-seeking
goals do service engineers
display?
Descriptive:
What information sources
are service engineers
selecting and using?
Explanatory:
What factors
affect/influence service
engineers choice of
information source in a
work task situation?
Information source
(human, computer
database, paper etc)
Information, classified
to certain type
Explorative:
Do software users display
patterns of documentation
behavior that may warrant
further, more formal,
investigation?

14. Background on empirical study 2
• What information-seeking goals do service engineers display? What
information sources are service engineers selecting and using?
• Population: 7 in-house service engineers performing predictive and
corrective maintenance of industrial equipment (fresh and waste
water pumps).
• Location: Service workshop in Veddesta, Stockholm.
• Time period: In total, the researcher spent 12 working days in work
shop spread across October to December 2012.
• Data collection method: Participant observation in naturalistic
environment.
• Unit of measure: Q3/Q4 statements and final state of object in
search task. Used tool (information source).
15

15. Workshop setting for empirical study 2 and 3
• Images from the work shop:
16
Figure 1: Service engineer doing corrective maintenance
Figure 2: Disassembled industrial equipment

16. Results RQ1: What information-seeking goals
do service engineers display?
• 128 information-seeking incidents was registered during approx. 80 hours of
observation of 7 service engineers.
• An information-seeking incident occurred roughly every half hour.
• In total, 23 types of seeking goal were classified.
• The 23 seeking goals was further classified into 4 groups:
• Knowing something about the equipment/product
• Getting data about an individual (colleague)
• Remembering (own) earlier performance
• Getting the view point/suggestion of a colleague
• Majority of goals are related to ”equipment/product” group
(13 types of goals – in total 80 incidents).
17

17. Results RQ1: What information-seeking goals
do service engineers display?
• Found information is used differently and depends on work task (reading
goal, B-L Gunarsson, Uppsala University).
• Reading goal is probably defined in seeking activity and need dependent.
For example:
• Not memorize in short term memory (STM) – just write down information
on paper and transfer to another system.
• Memorize in STM – to use in work task and then forget.
• Understand what sender is saying (meaning).
• Integrate sender description with own knowledge.
• Integrate and learn to be able to perform task in new situation.
18

18. Results RQ1: What information-seeking goals
do service engineers display?
19
Main type of
seeking goal
Number of
sub types/
number of
incidents
Not keep
in
STM/LTM
Keep in
STM
Interpret
sender
description
Integrate
with own
knowledge
Internalize
to be able
to act
Data about
equipment
13/80 Write
down part
nr
Is this the
compressor
?
Data about
individual
5/15 Phone no to
colleague
Do you
know how to
do X?
Data about
onself
1/3 What did I
do last
Friday?
Understand
someone
elses oppinion
4/33 N/A N/A What do
you think?
Should I...
How do I do
this task?
Table: Information-seeking goals

19. RQ1: Discussion related
to information-seeking goals
• Technical communicators do believe that users mostly need task
oriented information (instructions): This study reveals that not all
seeking goals are related to a product and are not of procedural
nature.
• Service engineers display different types of query statements:
• Explorative: ”What is this noise”
• Confirmative: ”Is this a compressor?”
• Determinative: ”Find partnr for equipment X”
• There seems to be planned and unplanned seeking activities.
• Service engineer know that they do not know and before doing a
work task they seek information.
• Service engineer becomes aware of that they do not know in the
middle of a work task.
20

20. Results RQ1: What information sources are
service engineers selecting and using?
• 6 generic types of information sources was used. Each generic type of
information source was further classified into a sub type. Manuals are not
used (depends on classification of manual).
• Significant relation between type of goal and source selection.
21
68
27
17
Humans Paper print out Computer Technical device Equipment/artifact Mobile
9
4 3

21. What factors affect/influence service engineers
choice of information source in a work task
situation?
24
Subject is aware
of the following
sources and
“knows” what
they contain:
Perceived info
environment
A
C
B
Subject says that a
source must fulfill
one or all of the
following criteria to
be a choice:
Source selection
criteria
“Must be
accessible”
“Must contain the
information I need”
Manual
Subject says that the
following sources fulfill
selection criteria
(without ranking them)
Information
source horizon
Subject used source
B first and then A for
the given incident
Information
pathway
Database Y
Colleague X
A
B
Database Y
Colleague X
How many sources is
subject aware of and
have s/he used
them?
B Colleague X
A Database Y
For a given information seeking incident:
1
2
What criteria must
sources have for you to
consider them?
How do you know that
these sources fulfill the
criteria? And why did not
(C) fulfill the criteria?
Why did you use source
B first and then A?

22. Discussion RQ2: What factors affect/influence
service engineers choice of information source in
a work task situation?
Reflection from data collection that is worth to discuss:
• In some incidents, service engineers are using a computer system
to find information that is not primarily intended as an information
system (such as an order system to find part nr).
• Are service engineers using colleagues as much as they do
because:
• From a habit point of view, they are so used to ask a colleague
that they do it even for information that could be found in
documentation? Naturalistic decision models (like RPDM) could
explain this phenomena.
• They want to keep the socio-cultural group intact.
25

23. Discussion RQ2: Why do service engineers
display a certain information-seeking goal?
(What follows is pre-discussion/pre-understanding)
• Do service engineers display a certain seeking goal due to that:
• They perceive a lack and uncertainty of knowledge and experience to
perform a work task - the individual perspective.
• Want to maintain a social status in a group or keep the work group intact
(strenghten the ”we” feeling) – the socio phsychological perspective.
• They want to kill time or simple because of boredom –
the situational perspective.
• They feel that the organization/work group and the work role force them to
seek (it is expected) even though they dont need to –
the organization/socio-cultural perspective.
• The opposite can be true? – they do not seek even thoug they need
information, due to that work role, work group or organization expects you to
not search for information.
26

24. Discussion RQ2: Why do service engineers
display a certain information-seeking goal?
• Lack of knowledge: Users lacks the needed knowledge and must
do a planned or un-planned information-seeking task.
• External goal request: An information system or manager request
the user to do a task that the user do not understand, which leads
the user to seek information. Highly regulated environments such as
military systems (?).
• Decision making: Work task is associated with a lot of decision
making. Users need information to be able to make a decision.
• Job responsibility: Job responsibility work task is most often not to
seek information, but for some work roles it can be to seek
information to deliver it to someone else. Then the information is not
for own use.
28

25. Questions?
29