A grounded theory of the flow experiences of Web users

By Steven Pace. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud., 2004

436 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper presents a grounded theory of the flow experiences of Web users engaged in information-seeking activities. The term flow refers to a state of consciousness that is sometimes experienced by individuals who are deeply involved in an enjoyable activity. The experience is characterized by some common elements: a balance between the challenges of an activity and the skills required to meet those challenges; clear goals and feedback; concentration on the task at hand; a sense of control; a merging of action and awareness; a loss of self-consciousness; a distorted sense of time; and the autotelic experience.The grounded theory research method that was employed in this study is a primarily inductive investigative process in which the researcher formulates a theory about a phenomenon by systematically gathering and analysing relevant data. The aim of this research method is building theory, not testing theory. The data that was gathered for this study primarily consisted of semi-structured in-depth interviews with informants of varying gender, age, educational attainments, occupations and Web experience who could recall experiencing flow while using the Web.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Information Systems

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a0f26623d62a457fd3ef88975fa7216a4a4072ca

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In Developmental and Educational Psychology

In Information Systems

Citations in the corpus

Exploratory Search: Beyond the Query-Response Paradigm (2009, background): “navigator be able to conceptualize the space as a whole. This is analogous to what Thorndyke and Goldin (1983) refer to as survey knowledge.”
Can we get from liking to buying? Behavioral differences in hedonic and utilitarian Facebook usage (2013, methodology): “Online browsing behavior has often been associated with seeking sensory stimulation and experiences from web use, consistent with the flow theory (Cotte et al. 2006, Moe 2003, Novak et al. 2003, Pace 2004).”
The Causal Relationships among Recreational Involvement, Flow Experience, and Well-being for Surfing Activities (2015, background): “Past studies have also proven that those with high recreational involvement will also have a higher flow experience from the activity (Decloe, Kaczynski, & Havitz, 2009; Havitz & Mannell, 2005; Pace, 2004).”
The development and evaluation of a survey to measure user engagement (2010, background): “This supports related work that advocates creating positive affective experiences and views emotion as an essential component in system development (e.g., Laurel, 1993; Nahl, 2007; Pace, 2004).”
User experience, satisfaction, and continual usage intention of IT (2010, background): “Intrinsic enjoyment of technology use exists in a concentrated state of technology involvement with a sense of control (Davis et al ., 1992; Pace, 2004).”
Engagement, telepresence and interactivity in online consumer experience: Reconciling scholastic and managerial perspectives (2010, background): “Accordingly, there is widespread practitioner acceptance that engagement is the critical online process by which brand equity is increased (Passikoff et al., 2007). Ninety percent of companies in the EConsultancy (2008) consumer engagement survey said that online customer engagement is either ‘essen”
How smartphone advertising influences consumers' purchase intention (2019, background): “A poorly designed interface can disrupt a flow experience by demanding an excessive amount of attention, or contrarily, distracting the users (Pace, 2004).”
Taking "Fun and Games" Seriously: Proposing the Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) (2012, background): “Consequently, an increase in curiosity about a system would likely result in an increase in BIU to satisfy one’s curiosity (Qin, Rau, & Salvendy, 2009; Pace, 2004).”