Time Pressure and System Delays in Information Search

We report preliminary results of the impact of time pres- sure and system delays on search behavior from a laboratory study with forty-three participants. To induce time pres- sure, we randomly assigned half of our study participants to a treatment condition where they were only allowed five minutes to search for each of four ad-hoc search topics. The other half of the participants were given no task time limits. For half of participants’ search tasks (n=2), five second de- lays were introduced after queries were submitted and SERP results were clicked. Results showed that participants in the time pressure condition queried at a significantly higher rate, viewed significantly fewer documents per query, had significantly shallower hover and view depths, and spent sig- nificantly less time examining documents and SERPs. We found few significant differences in search behavior for sys- tem delay or interaction effects between time pressure and system delay. These initial results show time pressure has a significant impact on search behavior and suggest the de- sign of search interfaces and features that support people who are searching under time pressure

User Acceptance of Electronic Meeting Technology in the Semiconductor Research Corporation

This study assesses the satisfaction of current and potential Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) E-meeting users through survey research. Results from 48 survey responses generally confirm the relationships among potential determinants of information technology usage as specified in an augmented version of Davis' (1989) Technology Acceptance Model. By measuring the relationship between the satisfaction factors, intention to use and actual use, we can have a better understanding of the current and potential E-meeting users in the SRC member community. Finally, uncovering negative relationships between perceptions and intention to use E-meeting technology creates an opportunity for the SRC to ameliorate these concerns, including but not limited to changes to the E-meeting technology used, changes in E-meeting conditions, or opportunities to address misperceptions

Academic Library Information-Seeking Ecosystem

The transition from print to electronic resources has brought significant changes to academic librarianship. To facilitate access to electronic resources, libraries created website portals through which users can access subscription resources hosted on a vendor website. Increasingly, libraries strive to provide access to resources at the place and time of need without necessarily requiring users to go through the library website. Libraries continue to deploy technologies such as new authentication methods, new proxy features, and OpenURL resolvers to take users from a citation directly to the full-text. One unintended consequence, however, is that patrons may not realize that they are using library resources. The increasing migration of our users to Google, coupled with the escalating library trend toward outsourcing content and services, present challenging questions for the future of academic library web presences. At a time of major University budget cuts, can we afford to have library users “Google it” and get access to content without knowing it is a library resource? The trend of licensing services or tools like OpenURL resolvers or LibGuides will likely continue in academic libraries, and a key challenge is creating a cohesive user experience while sending users to vendor websites to access resources or services. Sometimes 3rd party services can be customized to share the look of the library website, but customization options are often limited. In addition, usage data provided by vendors may be limited and/or web analytics tools may not be able to be included, thereby reducing our ability to understand the users and usage of key services. The Challenge: Creating an excellent user experience while providing access to library resources at the place and time of need (by users’ preferred method) with so much of the library information seeking ecosystem out of locus of control of librarians. Presented at the IA Summit 2011 in Denver, CO, on April 1, 2011

Realism in empirical Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR) studies: A systematic review protocol

This is the initial protocol for a systematic review. Our systematic review aims to identify empirical studies of people conducting interactive searches in which they initiate a request for information from one or more information retrieval systems to complete researcher-assigned tasks. A subset of these studies that explicitly discuss the realism of element aspect of the study (e.g., realism of researcher-assigned tasks, IR systems, etc.) will be analyzed in-depth

Adaptation in Information Search and Decision-Making under Time Pressure

The purpose of this dissertation research was to understand how people adapt their information search and decision-making processes and outcomes under time pressure. The goal of the first study was to create and evaluate decision-making tasks; the results were also used to empirically set the task time limit for the main study. The primary goal of the second study was to investigate the impact of time constraints and time pressure on behavioral, cognitive and affective aspects of the search and decision-making processes and outcomes. A mixed methods research design was used in both studies. Quantitative data analysis methods were used to analyze logged search interactions, eye-tracking data, and questionnaires to gain insights into participants' perceptions of the tasks, their search and decision processes, and their decisions. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze participant's recommendation decisions for their specificity and accuracy. In Study 2, seven hypotheses were tested to evaluate the impact of time constraints on processes, outcomes, and time perceptions. Participants without a time limit spent almost exactly 5 minutes on the task and participants with a 5-minute time limit spent under 3 minutes although this difference was not significant. There were no significant differences in search behaviors between time conditions. Time-constrained participants who made a recommendation quickly were less likely to recommend a specific option, but there were no overall differences in recommendation specificity. Time-constrained participants felt higher time pressure, greater time inadequacy, and greater time monitoring with moderate levels of search activity. They perceived a faster task pace, although there were no differences in the average time spent on pages. Time-constrained participants did not find it more difficult to search or make a decision, but they did find it less difficult to decide whether to search. They also did not find it more difficult to decide when to stop and make their decision, and they did not think that they had less adequate information.Doctor of Philosoph

Searching on the go : the effects of fragmented attention on mobile web search tasks

Smart phones and tablets are rapidly becoming our main method of accessing information and are frequently used to perform on-the-go search tasks. Mobile devices are commonly used in situations where attention must be divided, such as when walking down a street. Research suggests that this increases cognitive load and, therefore, may have an impact on performance. In this work we conducted a laboratory experiment with both device types in which we simulated everyday, common mobile situations that may cause fragmented attention, impact search performance and affect user perception. Our results showed that the fragmented attention induced by the simulated conditions significantly affected both participants' objective and perceived search performance, as well as how hurried they felt and how engaged they were in the tasks. Furthermore, the type of device used also impacted how users felt about the search tasks, how well they performed and the amount of time they spent engaged in the tasks. These novel insights provide useful information to inform the design of future interfaces for mobile search and give us a greater understanding of how context and device size affect search behaviour and user experience

Supporting metacognition during exploratory search with the OrgBox

Appendix for Crescenzi, Ward, Li, & Capra, 2021. Anita Crescenzi, Austin R. Ward, Yuan Li, Rob Capra. 2021. Supporting metacognition during exploratory search with the OrgBox. In Proceedings of the 44th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR ’21), July 11–15, 2021, Virtual Event, Canada. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 11 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3404835.346295

Making Service Decisions Based on Evidence

Background: Usability testing and a user survey were conducted to better understand user perceptions and to aid decision making about Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and Document Delivery (DD) cost and user experience. Usability Study: 10 usability test sessions were conducted with participants recruited from the UNC Health Affairs schools. Participants were asked to think aloud while completing a series of (known item) search tasks. Post task and post test interviews and questionnaires were administered to measure user satisfaction and perceptions. Survey: An IRB-approved online survey was administered via Qualtrics for one month using questions from instrument in the literature augmented with service-specific questions. 70 of 87 responses were analyzed for self-reported usage patterns, awareness of service availability and service costs, performance, expectations and service satisfaction