A Study of ANobii Users’ Preference Structure on Their Leisure Reading Seeking Behavior

• Main Authors: Pei-Hang Ting, 丁培涵
• Other Authors: 唐牧群
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13992503400841024063

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 圖書資訊學研究所 === 99 === This study aimed to explore how users search books they are interested in with different browsing tools in online bookshelf, aNobii, and whether the performance in subjective perspective and objective results will be different. To meet the demands of users’ leisure reading, we use accuracy and novelty as evaluation indicators. Besides, applying the concept of preference structure widely used in marketing as our independent variable, we attempted to investigate whether readers’ preference structure will influence results of book selection with different recommendation tools. A quasi-experimental design was adopted where all 40 participants searched alternately with the three book finding tools. There are two independent variables in the research, three browsing tools in aNobii-- friends, similar readers, and the author, and preference structure including preference development, preference homogeneity, and degree of reading involvement. The dependent variables are subjective perspective collected by questionnaires after the experiment and objective search results retrieved by the computer during the experiment. Some major findings are as follows. First, different browsing tools were found to affect users’ book selection behaviors. Users thought that browsing by author could help them find books better matching their reading preference. It produced a higher accuracy. However, users felt it was less interesting when choosing books by authors. On the contrary, users considered browsing friends’ bookshelf to be most interesting. Books found in friends’ bookshelf may not fit their reading preference but helped users broaden their horizon. Second, performance in subjective perspective and objective search results did not align with each other , which suggested they captured different aspects of user experience . Furthermore, readers’ preference structures were found to affect their browsing results. For instances, search results were better when the reader’s preference is highly developed and homogenous. Also, the reader with high reading involvement was found to be more likely to find books they had already known during browsing friends’ bookshelf. Thus, if we can build users’ reading preference profile to collect enough information for research, we can supply service that meet users’ needs in the future. Moreover, it can help us understand the relation between readers’ preference structure and reading needs.