Online How Children Search University of Maryland/ Google 1 Allison Druin, Elizabeth Foss, Hilary...

Online

How Children Search

University of Maryland/ Google1

Allison Druin, Elizabeth Foss, Hilary Hutchinson1, Evan Golub, Leshell Hatley HCIL Symposium 2010

at Home

A 7-year old is searching for dolphins…

“…I don’t know how to spell it….[Types the letters: ‘d-o’] There’s no dolphin…[Places chin in left hand] I don’t know.” …[Then the boy types an ‘l’ in the text box. After staring at the screen for about 45 seconds] Still no dolphin! [The boy adds an ‘F’ to the text box, clicks on search and looks through the results page for 10 more seconds….Slowly the child removes his right hand from the mouse and while leaning and mumbling through his left hand and looking down at the keyboard. He says quietly:] I d o n ’ t k n o w w h a t t o d o n o w … ”

How Children Search… Symposium 2010

Systematic, orderly, establ ished models…

• The Big Six (Eisenberg et al., 1990)• Information Search Process (Kuhlthau, 2004)• Information Skills (Todd, 2003)


Need to focus on…


Need to focus on…

• Vast information spaces…

• Informal information seeking…

• Children’s curiosity, failures, & age differences…


Research Methods…

•83 children & their parent(s)•41(g) 42 (b); ages 7, 9, 11•Parents interviewed •Children interviewed & observed use

-how do you usually search?-search for information on dolphins?-search for information for your own interest?-on which day of the week next year is the VP’s birthday?


•Aggregated data adapting Beyer & Holtzblatt (1998)

-flow…sequence…artifact…culture…

•Identified aspects: data coding methods (Strauss, 1987) -open coding…sorting, comparing, and categorizing-axial coding…refining specific areas of data-saturated…until no new aspects emerged

Research Methods…


•Search Roles emerged defined by-age…7, 9, 11-gender…girl/boy-behavioral trends…due to skill, motivation, focus, etc.-triggers…incentives for initiating a search-breakdowns…barriers to completing a search-frequency of role…how often roles seen during session

Research Methods…


•Developingsearcher… most common role- willing, but not consistently successful •Domain-Specificsearcher… limits searching experience to specific content areas

•Powersearcher… ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective •Non-motivatedsearcher… limited interest, experience, and ability searching

•Distractedsearcher… easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect

•Visualsearcher… limited to visual searching and results presented visually

•Rule-boundsearcher… unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations

Search Roles…







Search Roles…

r

1-4 roles per child7-yr olds: most roles


Search Roles…7 9 11







9 11

7

FF Search Roles…M







•When attempting to find VP’s birthday next year:•Boys had fewer “breakdowns” to search than girls -girls averaged 2.54 breakdowns per child -boys averaged 0.65 breakdowns per child

•Boys declined to search almost 2/3rds more•Girls persisted more than boys•Boys dealt with barriers by problem-solving•Girls dealt with barriers by focusing on negatives

Deal ing with Barr iers to Search…All ages…


•Three queries to find answer 1-the vice president is… “Michelle Obama” “Not Obama” 2-his birthday is…“not important” “Does his birthday change?” 3-calendar… “I’m not good at math” “algorithm”

•Approx. 20% of children could find the answer -no 7yr-olds, 20% 9yr-olds, 42% 11yr-olds -8 girls, 9 boys

•First stage failures (29 girls, 18 boys)•Wouldn’t even try (11 total) -either non-motivated or distracted searchers -3 girls, 8 boys

•Stopped mostly between 2nd & 3rd stages

The Vice President’s Birthday Next Year…

The Biden Effect: 0.5% success pre27% successpost


•Design for multiple roles multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context

•Learn from Powersearchers facile with keywords, ability to digest results

•Challenge known barriers motivation deficits, ongoing distractions, limiting rules •Create excitement about searching leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models

•Consider technology as influencers could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor

Future Direct ions…


•Design for multiple roles multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context

•Learn from Powersearchers facile with keywords, ability to digest results

•Challenge known barriers motivation deficits, ongoing distractions, limiting rules •Create excitement about searching leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models

•Consider technology as influencers could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor

Future Direct ions…

Motivation prompts…

Image or content as input…

Results filtering…


•Google Research Awards 2008, 2009•Dan Russell, Google User Experience •All the children & parents who let us into their homes

• team: Robin Brewer, Mona Leigh Guha, Beth Bonsignore, Greg Walsh, Quincy Brown, Alex Quinn, Ben Bederson, Ann Weeks, Sonia Franckel

Acknowledgements…


Online How Children Search University of Maryland/ Google 1 Allison Druin, Elizabeth Foss, Hilary...

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