The idea that people hunt for information online much the way animals hunt for food: they follow the strongest trail of clues toward a likely payoff and abandon a path once the effort stops feeling worth it.
Synonyms
None recorded.
Related terms
In plain words
- how people sniff around a site for what they need, like an animal hunting for food
- the way visitors chase the most promising links and bail when a page looks unhelpful
Usage example
Information foraging predicts that if a page seems low-value, people leave fast rather than dig deeper.
Don't confuse with…
- information scentInformation scent is the individual clue on a link; information foraging is the broader theory of how people follow those clues to decide where to go and when to quit.
Categories
- Information architecture