Effects of structure and interaction style on distinct search tasks

ABSTRACT

In this paper we present the results of a study that investigates the relationships between search tasks, information architecture, and interaction style. Three kinds of search tasks (simple lookup, complex lookup and exploratory) were performed using three different user interfaces (standard web site, hierarchical text-based faceted interface, and dynamic query faceted interface) for a large-scale public corpus containing semi-structured statistical data and reports. Twenty-eight people conducted the three kinds of searches in a between-subjects study and twelve others conducted the three kinds of searches on all three systems in a within-subjects study. Quantitative results demonstrate that the alternative general-purpose user interfaces that accept automated structuring of data offer comparable effectiveness, efficiency, and aesthetics to manually constructed architectures. Qualitative results demonstrate the manual architectures are favored.

REFERENCES

• 1: Christopher Ahlberg , Christopher Williamson , Ben Shneiderman, Dynamic queries for information exploration: an implementation and evaluation, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.619-626, May 03-07, 1992, Monterey, California, United States [doi>10.1145/142750.143054]
• 2: Davis, F. D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13(3), 319--340.
• 3: Miles Efron , Jonathan Elsas , Gary Marchionini , Junliang Zhang, Machine learning for information architecture in a large governmental website, Proceedings of the 4th ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries, June 07-11, 2004, Tuscon, AZ, USA [doi>10.1145/996350.996386]
• 4: Geisler, G. (2003). AgileViews: A Framework for Creating More Effective Information Seeking Interfaces. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
• 5: Jawaid A. Ghani , Roberta Supnick , Pamela Rooney, The experience of flow in computer-mediated and in face-to-face groups, Proceedings of the twelfth international conference on Information systems, p.229-237, January 1991, New York, New York, United States
• 6: Marti A. Hearst, Clustering versus faceted categories for information exploration, Communications of the ACM, v.49 n.4, April 2006 [doi>10.1145/1121949.1121983]
• 7: Amy K. Karlson , George G. Robertson , Daniel C. Robbins , Mary P. Czerwinski , Greg R. Smith, FaThumb: a facet-based interface for mobile search, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, April 22-27, 2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada [doi>10.1145/1124772.1124878]
• 8: Gary Marchionini, Exploratory search: from finding to understanding, Communications of the ACM, v.49 n.4, April 2006 [doi>10.1145/1121949.1121979]
• 9: Marchionini, G. and Brunk, B. (2003). Towards a general relation browser: A GUI for information architects. Journal of Digital Information, 4(1).
• 10: Gary Marchionini , Michael Levi, Digital government information services: the Bureau of Labor statistics case, interactions, v.10 n.4, July + August 2003 [doi>10.1145/838830.838864]
• 11: David Pinto , Andrew McCallum , Xing Wei , W. Bruce Croft, Table extraction using conditional random fields, Proceedings of the 26th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in informaion retrieval, July 28-August 01, 2003, Toronto, Canada [doi>10.1145/860435.860479]
• 12: Louis Rosenfeld , Peter Morville, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Sebastopol, CA, 2002
• 13: Ben Schneiderman, Dynamic Queries for Visual Information Seeking, IEEE Software, v.11 n.6, p.70-77, November 1994 [doi>10.1109/52.329404]
• 14: Ben Shneiderman , Catherine Plaisant, Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction (4th Edition), Pearson Addison Wesley, 2004
• 15: Pertti Vakkari, Task complexity, problem structure and information actions: integrating studies on information seeking and retrieval, Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, v.35 n.6, p.819-837, 35 [doi>10.1016/S0306-4573(99)00028-X]
• 16: Allison Woodruff , Ruth Rosenholtz , Julie B. Morrison , Andrew Faulring , Peter Pirolli, A comparison of the use of text summaries, plain thumbnails, and enhanced thumbnails for Web search tasks, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, v.53 n.2, p.172-185, January 15, 2002 [doi>10.1002/asi.10029]
• 17: Ka-Ping Yee , Kirsten Swearingen , Kevin Li , Marti Hearst, Faceted metadata for image search and browsing, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, April 05-10, 2003, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA [doi>10.1145/642611.642681]
• 18: Junliang Zhang , Gary Marchionini, Evaluation and evolution of a browse and search interface: relation browser, Proceedings of the 2005 national conference on Digital government research, May 15-18, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Measurement

Keywords:
browsing, facets, information architecture, usability