User purposes and information-seeking behaviors in web-based media: a user-centered approach to information design on websites

In the effort to specify and evaluate the designing of web-based media to improve users' satisfaction, design principles are established for general use.These principles might be developed holistically, or they can be analyzed and formulated from extensive user research. Since information on websites is traditionally structured and presented based on the websites' goals and contents, it may or may not match with users' purposes and their search behaviors.This leads to users' struggle and frustration. As a result, this paper presents a relatively new area of user research in web-based media, offering a user-centered perspective with the consideration of users' purposes, users' modes of searching and their search behaviors. The information on web-based media should not be designed only to serve websites' goals and contents, but should also match with purposes and search patterns of the intended audience in order to improve their satisfaction and help accomplish their goals.