Is There a Role for Physiological Methods in the Evaluation of Human-Information Interaction?

In human-information interaction (HII) we are facing new research challenges as we attempt to look more holistically at the relationship between people, technologies, and information objects. These challenges revolve around understanding how the interaction process changes over time and evaluating emotional responses during interaction. The use of physiological measures is becoming prevalent in human-computer interaction (HCI) research to detect emotional responses during technology use and to design responsive computer devices. In this paper, we explore the collection, analysis and interpretation of physiological measures through the research literature and our own experience of employing them in a research study, with the overarching question, “What is the potential for physiological measures in the study of HII?Arts, Faculty ofLibrary, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School ofReviewedWinner of the ALISE/Dialog Methodology Paper Competition, Association of Library and Information Science Education, January 2012.FacultyGraduat