Introduction: This study aims to understand the interactions of perception, effort, emotion, time and performance during the performance of multiple information tasks using Web information technologies. Method: Twenty volunteers from a university participated in this study. Questionnaires were used to obtain general background information and examine the research problem. Analysis: The quantitative data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Results: The results of this study revealed that those with higher cognitive effort experienced more stress and frustration and higher temporal demand, resulting in lower performance, even though they spent more time finishing the information task. A high degree of temporal demand and negative emotional state led people to perform the task poorly even though they invested more mental effort on the task. Our feelings and emotions play a key role in our ability to deal with a situation where multiple information tasks need to be done within a certain time limit. Conclusions: The results of this study can be employed as a theoretical foundation for designing human-friendly, adaptive user interfaces, which function as intelligent and affective central mechanisms and help users prioritise, monitor and coordinate their needs/tasks/goals effectively and efficiently. This study introduces the emotional factor, which is a newly emerging dimension, in dynamic information seeking and retrieval contexts and enlightens the existing areas of human information interaction.