Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

David J. Bell; Ian Ruthven

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching

David J. Bell, Ian Ruthven

Computer And Information Sciences

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

84 Citations (Scopus)

66 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

Original language	English
Number of pages	14
Publication status	Published - 2004
Event	26th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) - Sunderland, UK Duration: 5 Apr 2004 → 7 Apr 2004

Conference

Conference	26th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR)
City	Sunderland, UK
Period	5/04/04 → 7/04/04

Keywords

searching
web searching
search engines
information retrieval

Access to Document

strathprints001917Accepted author manuscript, 268 KB

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84 Citations
1 Chapter

Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching
Bell, D. J. & Ruthven, I., 2004, Advances in information retrieval: proceedings of the 26th european conference in information retrieval (ECIR 2004). McDonald, S. & Tait, J. (eds.). Berlin-Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, p. 57-71 14 p. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; vol. 2997).
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
84 Citations (Scopus)

Cite this

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title = "Searchers' assessments of task complexity for web searching",

abstract = "The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.",

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note = "Paper published in: Advances in Information Retrieval: Proceedings of the 26th European Conference in Information Retrieval (ECIR 2004), Springer-Verlag, ISBN: 3540213821. (This is a variant record); 26th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) ; Conference date: 05-04-2004 Through 07-04-2004",

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AU - Ruthven, Ian

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N2 - The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

AB - The complexity of search tasks has been shown to be an important factor in searchers' ability to find relevant information and their satisfaction with the performance of search engines. In user evaluations of search engines an understanding of how task complexity affects search behaviour is important to properly understand the results of an evaluation. In this paper we examine the issue of search task complexity for the purposes of evaluation. In particular we concentrate on the searchers' ability to recognise the internal complexity of search tasks, how complexity is affected by task design, and how complexity affects the success of searching.

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KW - search engines

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