Extensive research exists on user interactions with search engine result pages (SERPs) in desktop and mobile environments. However, relatively little work has focused on understanding how virtual reality (VR) users interact with SERPs in 3D immersive virtual environments (IVEs). Unlike 2D displays with established paradigms (e.g., ranked lists), 3D IVEs lack standardized methods for presenting search results. This work explores how different information arrangements in 3D virtual space impact users' search behaviors and preferences.

Events like Valentine's Day and Christmas can influence user intent when interacting with search engines. For example, a user searching for gift around Valentine's Day is likely to be looking for Valentine's-themed options, whereas the same query close to Christmas would more likely suggest an interest in Holiday-themed gifts. These shifts in user intent, driven by temporal factors, are often implicit but important to determine the relevance of search results. In this demo, we explore how incorporating temporal awareness can enhance search relevance in an e-commerce setting. We constructed a database of 2K events and, using historical purchase data, developed a temporal model that estimates each event's importance on a specific date. The most relevant events on the date the query was issued are then used to enrich search results with event-specific items. Our demo illustrates how this approach enables a search system to better adapt to temporal nuances, ultimately delivering more contextually relevant products.

We present Event-focused Search, an automated and scalable pipeline designed to facilitate event discovery and enhance event-based search. This is done by leveraging large language models (LLMs) to populate event datasets, perform temporal search based on selected dates, and aggregate search results based on appropriate events based on those searches. We illustrate this pipeline through proof-of-concept interfaces in an e-commerce context, though such a framework is applicable to different types of search scenarios (e.g., sports, entertainment).

User interactions with search engine result pages (SERPs) are well researched in desktop and mobile computing environments. However, relatively little work has focused on how users interact with SERPs presented in 3D immersive virtual environments (IVEs) using virtual reality head-mounted displays (VR HMDs). While 2D displays have well-understood methods to present search results (e.g., ranked lists of 10 blue links), 3D IVEs do not yet have established paradigms for presenting search results.

Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and head-mounted displays (HMD) have seen increased adoption in recent years. In this work, we study two factors that influence users' experience when shopping in VR through voice queries: (1) context alignment of the search environment and (2) the level of detail on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). To this end, we developed a search system for VR and conducted a within-subject exploratory study (N=18) to understand the impact of the two experimental conditions. Our results suggest that both context alignment and SERP are important factors for information-seeking in VR, which present unique opportunities and challenges. More specifically, based on our findings, we suggest that search systems for VR must be able to: (1) provide cues for information-seeking in both the VR environment and SERP, (2) distribute attention between the VR environment and the search interface, (3) reduce distractions in the VR environment and (4) provide a ''sense of control'' to search in the VR environment.

Abstract Exploratory searches involve significant cognitively demanding aiming at learning and investigation. However, users gain little support from search engines for their cognitive and metacognitive activities (e.g., discovery, synthesis, planning, transformation, monitoring, and reflection) during exploratory searches. To better support the exploratory search process, we designed a new search assistance tool called OrgBox. OrgBox allows users to drag‐and‐drop information they find during searches into “boxes” and “items” that can be created, labeled, and rearranged on a canvas. We conducted a controlled, within‐subjects user study with 24 participants to evaluate the OrgBox versus a baseline tool called the OrgDoc that supported rich‐text features. Our findings show that participants perceived the OrgBox tool to provide more support for grouping and reorganizing information, tracking thought processes, planning and monitoring search and task processes, and gaining a visual overview of the collected information. The usability test reveals users' preferences for simplicity, familiarity, and flexibility of the design of OrgBox, along with technical problems such as delay of response and restrictions of use. Our results have implications for the design of search‐assisting systems that encourage cognitive and metacognitive activities during exploratory search processes.

While current systems are effective in helping searchers resolve simple information needs (e.g., fact-finding), they provide less support for searchers working on complex information-seeking tasks. Complex search tasks involve a wide range of (meta)cognitive activities, including goal-setting, organizing information, drawing inferences, monitoring progress, and revising mental models and search strategies. We report on a lab study ( N = 32) that investigated the influences of a knowledge representation tool called the OrgBox, developed to support searchers with complex tasks. The OrgBox tool was integrated into a custom-built search system and allowed study participants to drag-and-drop textual passages into the tool, organize passages into logical groupings called “boxes”, and make notes on passages and boxes. The OrgBox was compared to a baseline tool (called the Bookmark) that allowed participants to save textual passages, but not organize them nor make notes. Knowledge representation tools such as the OrgBox may provide special benefits for users with different cognitive profiles. In this article, we explore two cognitive abilities: (1) working memory (WM) capacity and (2) switching (SW) ability. Participants in the study were asked to gather information on a complex subject and produce an outline for a hypothetical research article. We investigate the influences of the tool (OrgBox vs. Bookmark) and the participant’s working memory capacity and switching ability on three types of outcomes: (RQ1) search behaviors, (RQ2) post-task perceptions, and (RQ3) the quality of outlines produces by participants.

Current search systems are effective in helping users complete simple search tasks (e.g., fact-finding). However, they provide less support for users completing complex search tasks. Complex search tasks involve a diverse set of cognitive and metacognitive activities, such as goal-setting, organizing information, drawing inferences, monitoring progress, and updating mental models. We report on a lab study (N=32) that investigated the uses and influences of a novel knowledge representation tool called the "OrgBox'', developed to support searchers with complex tasks. The OrgBox was integrated into a custom-built search system and allowed participants to save information by drag-and-dropping textual passages into the tool, organize passages into "boxes'', and make notes on passages and boxes. The OrgBox tool was compared to a baseline tool (the "Bookmark'') that allowed participants to save passages, but not organize them nor make notes. We investigate four research questions. In RQ1, we investigate the effects of the knowledge representation tool on participants' post-task perceptions. In RQ2-RQ4, we investigate: (RQ2) how participants used different features of each tool; (RQ3) the perceived benefits and challenges of each tool; and (RQ4) the influences of each tool on the approaches taken by participants to complete the task. To address RQ2-RQ4, we conducted a qualitative analysis of participants' responses during an exit interview. We discuss implications from our results for designing tools to support users with complex search tasks.

Previous studies found that cross-session search tasks are often complex due to the uncertainty of task features, users' perception of the tasks, and the challenges (e.g., time limitation, interruptions) that users encounter during the process. Using Anderson & Krathwohl's taxonomy of learning, we analyzed the complexity of real-life cross-session search tasks reported by 110 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers. We found that cross-session search tasks often require different types of information (i.e., factual and conceptual information, procedure information, opinions, and information for helping metacognition) and are frequently associated with higher-level cognitive activities, including: applying analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Our findings add knowledge about cross-session search, and have insights for future research related to system design and studying cross-session search.

Current search systems provide effective support to users engaged in fact-finding and look-up oriented tasks. However, they provide relatively little support for users engaged in exploratory search tasks that involve cognitive and metacognitive activities such as learning, synthesis, planning, and reflection. We conducted a within-subject user study (N=24) that investigated the effects of a novel knowledge organization tool called the OrgBox, designed to assist users with organizing and synthesizing information, and metacognitive activities. The OrgBox included features to allow users to drag-drop information they found through search into "boxes" that could be created, labelled, and re-arranged. Study participants completed two exploratory search tasks, one with the OrgBox, and one with the OrgDoc, a baseline tool that included features of a rich-text editor (e.g., formatting, bullets) for taking notes.

We describe a search-assistance tool called the OrgBox, created to support users' organizational, cognitive, and metacognitive activities while performing exploratory search tasks. The OrgBox tool allows users to create and label "boxes" to organize information found during a search. The OrgBox was integrated with a custom built search system that allowed users to save, organize, and synthesize information using drag-and-drop actions. The OrgBox tool also encourages users to engage in metacognitive activities during their search process (e.g., planning their next steps, monitoring their progress, evaluating the information found so far). In this paper, we describe the features and implementation of the OrgBox tool. We also summarize result of two user studies conducted using the OrgBox that show its cognitive and metacognitive benefits to users.

In this paper, we demonstrate the Information Interactions in Virtual Reality (IIVR) system designed and implemented to study how users interact with abstract information objects in immersive virtual environments in the context of information retrieval. Virtual reality displays are quickly growing as social and personal computing media, and understanding user interactions in these immersive environments is imperative. As a step towards effective information retrieval in such emerging platforms, our system is central to upcoming studies to observe how users engage in information triaging tasks in Virtual Reality (VR). In these studies, we will observe the effects of (1) information layouts and (2) types of interactions in VR. We believe this early system motivates researchers in understanding and designing meaningful interactions for future VR information retrieval applications.

Researchers in interactive information retrieval (IIR) have studied and refined 2D presentations of search results for years. Recent advances are bringing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to real-world systems, though the IIR community has done relatively little work to explore and understand aspects of 3D presentations of search results, effects of immersive environments, and the impacts of spatial cognition and different spatial arrangements of results displays in 3D. In the research proposed here, I outline my plan to use immerse environments to investigate how users' spatial cognition may influence the information retrieval process. Specifically, this work will observe how spatial arrangements of search results affect users' ability to find information in the post-query, visual search phase of the IIR process across quantitative and qualitative measures.

In this paper, we present results from an exploratory study to investigate users' behaviors and preferences for three different styles of search results presentation in a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD). Prior work in 2D displays has suggested possible benefits of presenting information in ways that exploit users' spatial cognition abilities. We designed a VR system that displays search results in three different spatial arrangements: a list of 8 results, a 4x5 grid, and a 2x10 arc. These spatial display conditions were designed to differ in terms of the number of results displayed per page (8 vs 20) and the amount of head movement required to scan the results (list < grid < arc). Thirty-six participants completed 6 search trials in each display condition (18 total). For each trial, the participant was presented with a display of search results and asked to find a given target result or to indicate that the target was not present. We collected data about users' behaviors with and perceptions about the three display conditions using interaction data, questionnaires, and interviews. We explore the effects of display condition and target presence on behavioral measures (e.g., completion time, head movement, paging events, accuracy) and on users' perceptions (e.g., workload, ease of use, comfort, confidence, difficulty, and lostness). Our results suggest that there was no difference in accuracy among the display conditions, but that users completed tasks more quickly using the arc. However, users also expressed lower preferences for the arc, instead preferring the list and grid displays. Our findings extend prior research on visual search into to the area of 3-dimensional result displays for interactive information retrieval in VR HMD environments.

In interactive information retrieval, an important research question is: How do task characteristics influence users’ needs and behaviors? We report on a laboratory study ( N =32) that investigated the effects of task complexity on the types of information used by participants while searching. Participants completed tasks of four complexity levels and had access to four different types of information provided through a search-assistance tool referred to as the InfoBoxes (IB). The IB tool presented the following types of task-related information ( info-types ) on different tabs: (1) facts, (2) concepts, (3) opinions, and (4) insights. Facts (and opinions) were defined as objective (and subjective) statements relevant to the task. Concepts were defined as important ideas, principles, or entities related to the task. Insights were defined as tips or advice about the task. The study investigated six research questions that considered the effects of task complexity on: (RQ1) participants’ pre-/post-task perceptions about useful info-types; (RQ2) use of different info-types during the task; (RQ3) motivations for engaging with the IB; (RQ4) gains from using it; (RQ5) the search stage participants were in while engaging with the IB; and (RQ6) motivations for sometimes avoiding the IB. Our results suggest that task complexity influenced all six types of outcomes. We discuss implications of our results for designing search assistance tools and systems that favor certain types of content based on task characteristics.