User:Maryamomair/sandbox

The concept of social navigation is supported by several theories. Information foraging theory studies human behavior when they are seeking, gathering, sharing and consuming information. Information foraging theory applies optimal foraging theory (OFT) to human behavior when they navigate to information. It explains how people get benefit from other people based on history- rich digital objects which explains the idea of used items or paths. For examples, a used book that has notes, highlights and underlines is different from a new book, and footprints where people follow others’ footprints to get the right direction. History- rich digital objects help people to find the target faster and more efficient.

Information foraging, also, is an alternative to food foraging and ant colony optimization which states that information human-hunters follow others’ paths to reach their target in an optimal time. The optimal information has to maximize the value of the information that is gained per unit cost (like time or effort). This theory supports collaborative activities. It is a guide for designers to build good interfaces where users can get benefit from others research.

The weaknesses of this theory are when people trace information in a wrong direction, there’s no way to re-direct them unless they figure it out, and optimization is not always the case on human behavior; humans make decision when they are satisfied with the result.