The retrieval of highly scattered facts and architectural images: Strategies for search and design

To illustrate the phenomenon of information scatter, this article presents examples from an ongoing study of how facts related to common healthcare topics are distributed across high-quality sources. These results are compared to results from a small study to explore how images of buildings designed by a well-known architect are distributed across high-quality image sources. The results from both studies suggest that the distributions of facts and images across relevant sources are Zipf-like, and pinpoint the kind of search knowledge needed to address such scatter. These results suggest the need for the development of systems and training that are “distribution conscious”, to assist users in finding comprehensive information about topics across information domains.