Impact of categorization autonomy on effective use and adoption intentions

Category tree view is an omnipresent element in graphical user interfaces where it captures information in terms of a hierarchical structure. These categorization trees facilitate human users' cognitive economy and decision-making. While previous research has investigated the utilities of using unstructured data compared to pre-categorized information by business users, the effectiveness of allowing users the autonomy to create their own categorization hierarchies from generic object types remains unexplored. This paper evaluates the benefits of categorization autonomy in terms of search precision, as an objective measure, as well as subjective intentions to use the system. We examined users' interactions with a platform in information seeking tasks with 201 subjects. Our findings indicate that categorization autonomy leads to superior results, both in terms of effective use and behavioral perceptions. We also found that the impact of categorization autonomy is moderated by task flexibility, such that the benefits are more apparent in tasks that necessitate open-ended search approaches. By focusing on how user-driven categorization influences system interaction, our study contributes to the design of decision support systems that are better aligned with users' cognitive structures and task demands.