This document reports on a user study that examined how task and document genre influence perceptions of document usefulness. 25 participants assessed the usefulness of 160 documents from the Canadian government website on 5 different tasks. Usefulness scores varied significantly by task and genre. Documents like news articles were seen as less useful than guides or homepages. While genre influenced perceptions for tasks like deciding or learning, it did not for more simple or complex tasks. The study also found that identifying genres was challenging for participants. In summary, the document explores how task and genre impact judgments of a document's usefulness.

1. Document Usefulness: taking Genre to Task Luanne Freund University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada HCIR 2011 – Mountain View, CA, October 21, 2011

5. Documents Canadian federal Web domain (gc.ca) 160 documents - mixed genres

12. Acknowledgements Thanks to all participants and to the following research assistants at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, UBC: Justyna Berzowska, Francesca de Freitas, Amanda Leinberger & Christina Nilsen This research was funded by a UBC Hampton Grant and a SSHRC Standard Research Grant to the first author.