Information Encountering Triggered by Textual Stimuli: A Diary Study Based on Social Q&A Platform

Abstract

[Purpose/Significance] Social Q&A platform represented by Zhihu is an information environment conducive to information encountering (IE). Studying the IE process in this specific environment, particularly the trigger mechanism of textual stimuli in the form of user questions, will help enrich the theoretical foundations of IE and provide optimization strategies for the design of social Q&A platform. [Method/Process] A diary study of IE was conducted in the context of Zhihu services. A total of 181 valid IE incidents triggered by textual stimuli on Zhihu were collected. With an online questionnaire created based on the critical incidental technique (CIT), we analyzed the internal and external characteristics of the encountered questions, the interaction between users and questions related information, and the relationship between characteristics of textual stimuli and users' interactions with the encountered questions both quantitatively and qualitatively. [Results/Conclusions] Questions with shorter length, higher comprehensibility and novelty were more likely to be encountered by users. In the IE process, users tended to examine the text, pictures and video of the Q&A post after paying attention to the question, and then take a series of actions to capture the information. The interaction intensity between users and information had no significant relationship with the external characteristics of questions. In terms of internal characteristics, the higher the novelty of a question is, the more likely users are willing to approach to it.

Keywords

• information encountering|textual stimuli|social q&a platform|diary study|critical incident technique