Wayfinding no contexto da encontrabilidade da informação: avaliação dos ambientes informacionais do departamento estadual de imprensa do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

This article is based on the Information Findability, exploring its wayfinding attribute (spatial orientation) in the scope of Information Science. The general objective is reflected in analyzing the informational environments of the State Department of Press of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, public agency that publishes the Official Gazette of the RN, in the perspective of the information findabilitybased on the recommendations of wayfinding. In order to do so, at first, a bibliographical research was carried out to understand the theoretical and practical aspects of wayfinding that aid in the information findabilityin analogical and digital information environments. Subsequently, the observation technique was used to evaluate the analog environment ofthe said Department (emphasis in the archive) and its digital environment (web site), based on recommendations of specific wayfinding for analogical and digital information environments, respectively. The results show that the archiveis lacking in wayfinding mechanisms, because a structured map of the environment is not available, in order to facilitate the spatial location in the building and, consequently, the available information, besides the sectors being similar, not having a proper visual identity.The web site, in turn, includes elements that favor information findability, because its interface is simple and has indicators of routes traveled, possibilities to download the documents sought in HTML or PDF and indicative that the search was successfully