Understanding in-context interaction: An investigation into on-the-go mobile search

Harvey, Morgan and Pointon, Matthew (2019) Understanding in-context interaction: An investigation into on-the-go mobile search. Information Processing & Management, 56 (6). p. 102089. ISSN 0306-4573

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2019.102089

Abstract

Recent years have seen a profound change in how most users interact with search engines: the majority of search requests now come from mobile devices, which are used in a number of distracting contexts. This use of mobile devices in various situational contexts away from a desk presents a range of novel challenges for users and, consequently, possibilities for interface improvements. However, there is at present a lack of work that evaluates interaction in such contexts to understand what effects context and mobility have on behaviour and errors and, ultimately, users’ search performance.

Through a controlled study, in which we simulate walking conditions on a treadmill and obstacle course, we use a combination of interaction logs and multiple video streams to capture interaction behaviour as participants (n = 24) complete simple search tasks. Using a bespoke tagging tool to analyse these recordings, we investigate how situational context and distractions impact user behaviour and performance, contrasting this with users in a baseline, seated condition. Our findings provide insights into the issues these common contexts cause, how users adapt and how such interfaces could be improved.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: mobile search, distraction, search experience, user study, experimentation
Subjects: G400 Computer Science
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Computer and Information Sciences
Depositing User: Paul Burns
Date Deposited: 25 Jul 2019 17:17
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 12:01
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/40171

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