System Oriented paradigm

User Oriented Paradigm

Objective Information

Information has constant meaning. It is a commodity or thing. It can be transported. It reflects an absolute correspondence with reality. It will convey the same meaning to all users.

Subjective Information

Information does not transmit constant meaning. Information users interpret information and create sense or meaning in accordance with their unique model or image of the world

Mechanistic Passive Users

Users are regarded as information processing systems. Being informed or benefiting from information is assumed to result directly from document delivery with no intervening user behavior.

Constructivist Active Users

The user constructs need out of situations and is actively involved in information transfer. The user undertakes activities that will induce sensemaking. The user is actively involved from the time the information arises to the point of problem resolution.

Transituationality

Users with similar characteristics in similar situations will react in similar ways, use information similarly and make similar decisions. The information behavior of users is described in ways that apply across situations.

Situationality

An individual’s responsiveness to information is governed by a range of variables that are unique to the individual and to the information problem that the user is engaging. Individuals operate from different centers at different times.

Atomistic View of Experience

The focus is an attention on user behavior at the point of intersection with the information system; the moment of contact and exchange.

Wholistic View of Experience

A user’s behavior is studied in terms of those factors that lead to an encounter with an information system and the consequences of such an encounter. A broader view of information  behavior from the time need arises to when it no longer exists.

External Behavior

Very concrete. Contact with a system is the basic indicator of information need. Focus on what can be observed as overt behavior.

Internal Cognitions

Acknowledges the premise that what is going on inside a person’s mind (the individual’s model of the world) will shape the way information is interpreted and used. Interested in what people think as well as what they do when they engage in information behavior.

Chaotic Individuality

Focus on individual information behavior will cause too much variation. Systems cannot accommodate individual interpretation. Individuality means chaos and prevents systematic research

Systematic Individuality

The complexity of individuality can be addressed in a way that is consistent with scientific investigation.