Dania Bilal

Children's Use of the Yahooligans! Web Search Engine : I. Cognitive, Physical, and Affective Behaviors on Fact-based Search Tasks

This study reports on the first part of a research project that investigated children’s cognitive, affective, and physical behaviors as they use the Yahooligans! search engine to find information on a specific search task. Twenty-two seventh-grade science children from a middle school located in Knoxville, Tennessee participated in the project. Their cognitive and physical behaviors were captured using Lotus ScreenCam, a Windowsbased software package that captures and replays activities recorded in Web browsers, such as Netscape. Their affective states were captured via a one-on-one exit interview. A new measure called “Web Traversal Measure” was developed to measure children’s “weighted” traversal effectiveness and efficiency scores, as well as their quality moves in Yahooligans! Children’s prior experience in using the Internet/Web and their knowledge of the Yahooligans! interface were gathered via a questionnaire. The findings provided insights into children’s behaviors and success, as their weighted traversal effectiveness and efficiency scores, as well as quality moves. Implications for user training and system design are discussed.

Children's use of the Yahooligans! Web search engine: II. cognitive and physical behaviors on research tasks

This study reports the results of Part II of a research project that investigated the cognitive and physical behaviors of middle school students in using Yahooligans! Seventeen students in the seventh grade searched Yahooligans! to locate relevant information for an assigned research task. Sixty-nine percent partially succeeded, while 31% failed. Children had difficulty completing the task mainly because they lacked adequate level of research skills and approached the task by seeking specific answers. Childrens cognitive and physical behaviors varied by success levels. Similarities and differences in childrens cognitive and physical behaviors were found between the research task and the fact-based task they performed in the previous study. The present study considers the impact of prior experience in using the Web, domain knowledge, topic knowledge, and reading ability on childrens success. It reports the overall patterns of childrens behaviors, including searching and browsing moves, backtracking and looping moves, and navigational styles, as well as the time taken to complete the research task. Children expressed their information needs and provided recommendations for improving the interface design of Yahooligans! Implications for formal Web training and system design improvements are discussed.

Children's use of the yahooligans! web search engine. III. cognitive and physical behaviors on fully self-generated search tasks

This article presents the third part of a research project that investigated the information-seeking behavior and success of seventh-grade science children in using the Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory. In parts 1 and 2, children performed fully assigned tasks to pursue in the engine. In the present study, children generated their tasks fully. Childrens information seeking was captured from the cognitive, physical, and affective perspectives using both quantitative and qualitative inquiry methods. Their information-seeking behavior and success on the fully self-generated task was compared to the behavior and success they exhibited in the two fully assigned tasks. Children were more successful on the fully self-generated task than the two fully assigned tasks. Children preferred the fully self-generated task to the two fully assigned tasks due to their ability to find the information sought and satisfaction with search results rather than the nature of the task in itself (i.e., self-generated aspect). Children were more successful when they browsed than when they searched by keyword on the three tasks. Yahooligans! design, especially its poor keyword searching, contributed to the breakdowns children experienced, implications for system design improvement and Web training are discussed.

Draw and tell: Children as designers of web interfaces

Eleven middle school children were involved in designing interfaces for Web search engines. Children were given the role of “designers” of the interfaces rather than “reactionaries” to existing ones. Using a participatory approach, children created eleven paper prototypes for Web search engines based on their needs and knowledge structure and they transcribed the purposes of these interfaces. The prototypes were analyzed in relation to content-related spaces, specific spaces, general spaces, instruction spaces, and other spaces. Childrens comments about the purposes of the interfaces were analyzed in terms of functionality and visual design. This study describes the prototypes children created and highlights the need for designing Web search engine interfaces that provide high usability for children and with children.

Children's conceptual structures of science categories and the design of Web directories

Eleven middle school children constructed hierarchical maps for two science categories selected from two Web directories, Yahooligans! and KidsClick! For each category, children constructed a pair of maps: one without links and one with links. Forty-four maps were analyzed to identify similarities and differences. The structures of the maps were compared to the structures employed by the directories. Children were able to construct hierarchical maps and articulate the relationships among the concepts. At the global level (whole map), childrens maps were not alike and did not match the structures of the Web directories. At the local levels (superordinate and subordinate), however, children shared similarities in the conceptual configurations, especially for the concrete concepts. For these concepts, substantial overlap was found between the childrens structures and those employed in the directories. For the abstract concepts the configurations were diverse and did not match those in the directories. The findings of this study have implications for design of systems that are more supportive of childrens conceptual structures.

Perspectives on children’s navigation of the World Wide Web: does the type of search task make a difference?

Reports the key findings of a three‐part research project that examined the information seeking behaviour and success of 22 seventh grade science students in using the Web. Children used the Yahooligans! search engine/directory to locate information for three different types of search tasks: one assigned fact‐finding task, one assigned research‐oriented task, and one fully self‐generated task. Children’s information‐seeking behaviour was studied from the cognitive, affective, and physical perspectives. Both quantitative and qualitative inquiry methods were employed to collect the data. Children’s behaviour and success were compared on the three tasks. Children were more successful on the fully self‐generated task than the fact‐based and the research‐oriented tasks. Children experienced difficulty in using Yahooligans! Their inadequate knowledge of how to use the engine, their poor level of research skills, as well as the poor structure of Yahooligans! keyword searching all surfaced as problems. Implications for Web training and system design improvements are provided.

Toward a model of children's information seeking behavior in using digital libraries

This paper presents an empirical model of Arabic-speaking childrens interaction with the International Childrens Digital Library (ICDL). The model is based on data collected from ten children ages 6--10 who interacted with the ICDL to find information for assigned and self-generated tasks. Two contexts influenced childrens information seeking behavior: 1. the non-naturalistic laboratory environment where they used the ICDL as volunteers rather than as part of their everyday life or as a requirement for an assignment, and 2. the international and multicultural nature of the ICDL that provided access to an Arabic book collection, but did not support analytical searching in Arabic. The model presents 7 modes that characterized childrens information seeking behavior and the range of moves associated with them. Underlying the behavior is the childrens information need and their affective states that consisted of uncertainty and anxiety in the beginning and certainty and satisfaction upon completing the tasks.

Evaluating leading web search engines on children's queries

This study compared retrieved results, relevance ranking, and overlap across Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Yahoo Kids!, and Ask Kids on 15 queries constructed by middle school children. Queries included one word, two words, and multiple words/phrases/natural language, and the results were benchmarked against Google and Yahoo Kids! top 5 and top 10 retrieved results using a new relevance ranking metric. Yahoo! and Bing yielded similar results on all queries, but their relevance ranking differed on one-word queries. Ask Kids outperformed Yahoo Kids! on all queries, and a modest percentage of results had the same relevance ranking as Google. Yahoo Kids! and Ask Kids returned unique results that were not retrieved by the other three engines on the first results page. Yahoo! and Bing produced the highest percentage in overlap with Google followed by Ask Kids. Implications are made for children and mediators concerning the use of search engines on childrens queries.

Meditating differences in children's interaction with digital libraries through modeling their tasks

Describes four graphical preliminary task-based models of ten Arabic-speaking children, ages 6-10, based on their interaction with the International Childrens Digital Library (ICDL). Data generated from a previous study (Bilal & Bachir, 2007b) were coded and analyzed to generate the models. Seven modes of behavior characterized childrens interaction: Start, Recognize, Browse, Differentiate, Read, Explore, and Finish. Each mode is associated with moves based on task characteristics. The models were constructed using the general model developed by Bilal, Sarangthem, & Bachir (2008), which was partially informed by the works of Ellis (1989), Ellis & Haugan (1997), Choo, Detlor, & Turnball (2000), and Marchionini (1995). New patterns of behavior that are missed in these works were identified (Explore and Read). The models lack a Search mode that characterized childrens keyword searching. The ICDL allowed entry of Arabic script in the search box, but failed to retrieve Arabic books by keyword. Childrens behavior that combined linear and non-linear progression and the core iterative processes that occurred between certain modes of behavior and varied by task provide additional perspectives for understanding information seeking behavior within the specific context of a small and well structured Web space such as the ICDL.

Analysis of Children's Queries and Click Behavior on Ranked Results and Their Thought Processes in Google Search

We investigate query characteristics and click behavior on SERPs of children in grades 6 and 8 (ages 11 and 13, respectively). We employ Retrospective Think-Aloud (RTA) protocol to elicit childrens thought processes while clicking on results and to identify the sources of information that shaped these processes. We analyze the effect of grade level and task type on query characteristics and click behavior. Early findings show statistical significance across the three tasks in relation to query characteristics and between younger and older children in relation to query entry duration, count of web pages visited and count of result pages clicked on in SERPs. Our study confirms findings reported in previous research, including large-scale search logs studies, and reveals new findings in some areas.