ViewSer: enabling large-scale remote user studies of web search examination and interaction

Web search behaviour studies, including eye-tracking studies of search result examination, have resulted in numerous insights to improve search result quality and presentation. Yet, eye tracking studies have been restricted in scale, due to the expense and the effort required. Furthermore, as the reach of the Web expands, it becomes increasingly important to understand how searchers around the world see and interact with the search results. To address both challenges, we introduce ViewSer, a novel methodology for performing web search examination studies remotely, at scale, and without requiring eye-tracking equipment. ViewSer operates by automatically modifying the appearance of a search engine result page, to clearly show one search result at a time as if through a “viewport”, while partially blurring the rest and allowing the participant to move the viewport naturally with a computer mouse or trackpad. Remarkably, the resulting result viewing and clickthrough patterns agree cl...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2011
• Where: SIGIR
• Authors: Dmitry Lagun, Eugene Agichtein
• Keywords: Behaviour Studies, Information Technology, Informational Storage, Search Evaluation, SIGIR 2011