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ABSTRACT
Despite the increasing use of mobile web in our everyday lives, mobile web search remains a challenging task mainly due to the intensive scrolling inherent in linear presentation of search engine results (SERs) on the small screen of a mobile device. Drawing on the cognitive load theory and information foraging theory, this study aims to improve user performance in mobile web search by proposing two new artifacts—radial visualization of SERs clusters and synchronization of clusters and individual SERs presentations. These artifacts are hypothesized to improve search efficiency and/or navigation efficiency without affecting search effectiveness. This study also examines a possible moderating effect of search task type (open-ended vs. close-ended tasks). We implemented four mobile web search systems that reflect four combinations of different visualization and synchronization settings and empirically evaluated them using a controlled experiment. The results show that the radial visualization improves search efficiency and navigation efficiency, particularly for the open-ended tasks. In addition, synchronous presentation improves navigation efficiency in terms of path similarity.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge partial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (SES-152768). Any opinions, findings or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSF.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ashwag Alasmari
Ashwag Alasmari is a PhD student in Information Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research interests include human–computer interaction, mobile technologies, and health and consumer informatics.
Lina Zhou
Lina Zhou is an associate professor of information systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has published over 50 referred articles in journals such as MIS Quarterly, JMIS, IEEE Transactions, and IJHCS. Her current research interests include deception detection, intelligent mobile web, social media analytics, and computer-mediated communication.