Anne Aula

How does search behavior change as search becomes more difficult

Search engines make it easy to check facts online, but finding some specific kinds of information sometimes proves to be difficult. We studied the behavioral signals that suggest that a user is having trouble in a search task. First, we ran a lab study with 23 users to gain a preliminary understanding on how users behavior changes when they struggle finding the information theyre looking for. The observations were then tested with 179 participants who all completed an average of 22.3 tasks from a pool of 100 tasks. The large-scale study provided quantitative support for our qualitative observations from the lab study. When having difficulty in finding information, users start to formulate more diverse queries, they use advanced operators more, and they spend a longer time on the search result page as compared to the successful tasks. The results complement the existing body of research focusing on successful search strategies.

Eye-mouse coordination patterns on web search results pages

We analyzed the patterns of coordination between users eye movements and mouse movements when scanning a web search results page, using data gathered from a study with 32 participants. We discovered 3 patterns of active mouse usage: following the eye vertically with the mouse, following the eye horizontally with the mouse, and using the mouse to mark a promising result.

Discriminating the relevance of web search results with measures of pupil size

The overwhelming amount of information on the web makes it critical for users to quickly and accurately evaluate the relevance of content. Here we tested whether pupil size can be used to discriminate the perceived relevance of web search results. Our findings revealed that measures of pupil size carry information that can be used to discriminate the relevance of text and image web search results, but the low signal-to-noise ratio poses challenges that need to be overcome when using this technique in naturalistic settings. Despite these challenges, our findings highlight the promise that pupillometry has as a technique that can be used to assess interest and relevance in web interaction in a non-intrusive and objective way.

Controlling the complexity in comparing search user interfaces via user studies

Over time, researchers have acknowledged the importance of understanding the users strategies in the design of search systems. However, when involving users in the comparison of search systems, methodological challenges still exist as researchers are pondering on how to handle the variability that human participants bring to the comparisons. This paper present methods for controlling the complexity of user-centered evaluations of search user interfaces through within-subjects designs, balanced task sets, time limitations, pre-formulated queries, cached result pages, and through limiting the users access to result documents. Additionally, we will present our experiences in using three measures - search speed, qualified search speed, and immediate accuracy - to facilitate the comparison of different search systems over studies.

A comparison of visual and textual page previews in judging the helpfulness of web pages

We investigated the efficacy of visual and textual web page previews in predicting the helpfulness of web pages related to a specific topic. We ran two studies in the usability lab and collected data through an online survey. Participants (total of 245) were asked to rate the expected helpfulness of a web page based on a preview (four different thumbnail variations: a textual web page summary, a thumbnail/title/URL combination, a title/URL combination). In the lab studies, the same participants also rated the helpfulness of the actual web pages themselves. In the online study, the web page ratings were collected from a separate group of participants. Our results show that thumbnails add information about the relevance of web pages that is not available in the textual summaries of web pages (title, snippet & URL). However, showing only thumbnails, with no textual information, results in poorer performance than showing only textual summaries. The prediction inaccuracy caused by textual vs. visual previews was different: textual previews tended to make users overestimate the helpfulness of web pages, whereas thumbnails made users underestimate the helpfulness of web pages in most cases. In our study, the best performance was obtained by combining sufficiently large thumbnails (at least 200x200 pixels) with page titles and URLs - and it was better to make users focus primarily on the thumbnail by placing the title and URL below the thumbnail. Our studies highlighted four key aspects that affect the performance of previews: the visual/textual mode of the previews, the zoom level and size of the thumbnail, as well as the positioning of key information elements.

Multilingual search strategies

We explored the search strategies of multilingual searchers, i.e., users who use multiple languages when searching for information. We wanted to understand factors that determine the language multilingual searchers choose to search in, if they switch languages within a search task, and if they encounter challenges when searching in a non-native language. Our results indicate that availability and perceived quality of information were the primary reasons for searching in a non-native language. Language switching within a search only occurred when information could not be found with the original search language. We also observed a language-related use case where the goal was not to find information in a typical sense, but rather to check for correct phrases in the non-native language using search engines. Our research highlights several areas of future work for further understanding the multilingual search process.

Invited SIG: designing for the living room tv experience

This SIG brings together practitioners and academic user researchers and designers who are interested in or working on defining both the software and hardware aspects of the user experience for TV. This SIG will be useful to people at all stages ranging from early research to released products. We especially welcome people from product labs.

Blocked sites and offensive videos: the challenges of teen computer use

Teenagers are often presented as comfortable users of technology. To better understand this assumption, we asked 27 teenagers to complete a survey about the previous days media use; we then interviewed the participants about these entries. The participants actively used computers for information, communication and entertainment. Most of the comments about technology were positive, but our study also revealed problems in the teenagers computer use. They had stories about parents and teachers restricting their use of the web and there were several instances in which the teens themselves found the web to be offensive, inappropriate and unreliable.