Trail Building During Complex Search Tasks

Abstract

Users frequently perform searches that do not only have simple fact retrieval in mind, but aim for more comprehensive results. These complex search tasks need to be distinguished from simple search tasks, where an information need can be fulfilled by simple fact finding. While search engine support for simple search tasks is satisfactory, it lacks in support for complex search tasks, leading to an increasing discontent about the interaction with the search engine of choice. In this paper we address the question, how to give tool support for complex search tasks. We present the logging framework ‘SearchTrails’, which captures the course of user actions of any search task and presents a corresponding graph visualization. We conducted a qualitative user study of SearchTrails and present first promising results.