Understanding consumer information needs: The impact of polychronic time use

Consumers in the Telecommunications Age want information now: they want it fast; they want it simple; they want it cheaply; and, more importantly, they often want it while doing something else. How they will obtain that information, however, is a matter of intense debate. Design questions must take into account how people use their time, how they process and combine information gathering methods, and how they arrange their living space. A simple fact remains: people want information available through the appliances they use every day in the mainstream of their daily lives. In the present paper, we examine the results of three studies on polychronic, or simultaneous, time use to offer suggestions to the consumer electronics industry.