“Making my own luck”: Serendipity strategies and how to support them in digital information environments

Abstract

my own luck": Serendipity strategies and how to support them in digital information environments. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(11), pp. 2179-2194. doi: 10.1002 This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent ABSTRACTSerendipity occurs when unexpected circumstances and an 'aha' moment of insight result in a valuable, unanticipated outcome. Designing digital information environments to support serendipity can not only provide users with new knowledge, but also propel them in exciting directions they might not otherwise have travelled insurprising and delighting them along the way. As serendipity involves unexpected circumstances it cannot be directly controlled, but it can potentially be influenced. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous work has focused on providing a rich empirical understanding of how it might be influenced. We interviewed 14 creative professionals to identify their self-reported strategies aimed at increasing the likelihood of serendipity. These strategies form a framework for examining ways existing digital environments support serendipity and for considering how future environments can create opportunities for it. This is a new way of thinking about how to design for serendipity; by supporting the strategies found to increase its likelihood rather than attempting to support serendipity as a discrete phenomenon, digital environments not only have the potential to help users experience serendipity but also encourage them to adopt the strategies necessary to experience it more often.

Audiovisual Narrative Creation and Creative Retrieval: How Searching for a Story Shapes the Story

“…The micro level analysis of media professionals' search and retrieval practices should be seen in the light of recent research interest in serendipitous search (Makri, Blandford, Woods, Sharples, & Maxwell, 2014;McCay-Peet & Toms, 2010), in relation to studies of media production that highlight the agency of media professionals who create audiovisual content. In line with Havens, Lotz, and Tinic (2009), the analysis aims to understand more quotidian practices of media production by studying industrial processes in conjunction with cultural processes.…”

“…"super encounterers" [Erdelez, 1999] would have "prepared minds" and are open to recognize serendipitous findings) or by triggers embedded in the search system. The literature focuses on how to manage serendipity by optimizing the serendipitous finding of relevant information (Makri et al, 2014;McCay-Peet & Toms, 2010). There seems, however, to be an inherent paradox built into this notion of serendipity management: how can users manage something accidental?…”

“…Their focus on process treats behavior as a social, rather than cognitive, phenomenon since it aspires to understand "information seekers within their social context" (McKenzie, 2003, p. 20) as part of a discursive analysis of information use. While it is not their intention to prescribe how to design what they refer to as serendipity strategies (Makri et al, 2014), they conclude that digital information environments ideally be developed to support serendipity strategies to allow users to "make mental space or draw on previous experiences" (Makri et al, 2014(Makri et al, , p. 2193.…”

“…While a system can potentially create opportunities for users to experience serendipity, a user needs to recognize something as a fortunate, accidental finding. This suggests moving away from building systems that "serve up" serendipity in favor of "empowering users to create their own personal 'recipes' for it", such as "varying your routine" (Makri et al, 2014(Makri et al, , p. 2181.…”

Tyranny of Distance: Understanding Academic Library Browsing by Refining the Neighbour Effect

“…Beyond these models, serendipity-the opportunity to discover information one otherwise would notis a key attribute of browsing. Savvy information seekers leverage their surroundings to increase the likelihood of serendipity [13], a strategy also used at the library shelves [1,6,14].…”