Information Encountering on Social Q&A Sites: A Diary Study of the Process

Social Q&A sites, which enable information seeking through the direct interaction between human askers and answerers, demonstrate the environmental characteristics that conduce to information encountering (IE). The purpose of this study is to reveal how IE occurs in this specific context. A diary study based on the critical incident technique (CIT) was conducted, and 108 IE incidents were collected from 83 users of Zhihu, a representative social Q&A site. The diary questionnaire was developed according to three existing general IE process models. The content analysis of these incidents engendered a context-specific model in which the micro-process of IE consists of noticing a stimulus, (stopping), examining the content, and capturing information, and is extended by including both the foreground and follow-up activities. This study not only enriches the understanding of human information behavior, but also provides useful implications for the design of social Q&A sites. The successful attempt to introduce CIT-based diary study to IE research also shows methodological significance.