Ground Zero

I'm still trying to hone in on exactly what I want to research for the next 7+ weeks. I am interested in the claims that Jared Spool makes in The Scent of Information. He states, "Users expect each click to lead to information that is more specific. They do not mind clicking through large numbers of pages if they feel they are getting closer to their goal with each click" (pg 25). And in fact, in his experiments, he measures users' confidence--claiming that users gain confidence at each step if they feel as though they are on the right track.

My curiosity wants to unpack this claim with the aim of investigating how feedback affects this confidence and search perseverance. I envision using different forms of feedback, varying the amount of information, in order to see how that affects search perseverance.

I am also interested in exploring users' emotions beyond 'confidence.' How is their frustration level affected by more clicks/steps? Does this depend on whether or not users have confidence in that click? For example, are users more frustrated in performing an extra click when they know it will take them closer to their goal or when they are unsure?