How Adolescents Search the Web with Keyword Interfaces: A pilot study Elizabeth Foss*, Allison Druin*, Robin Brewer †, Phillip Lo*, Luis Sanchez †, Evan Golub † *College of Information Studies †Department of Computer Science

The Study Qualitative Study In-home interviews with adolescents Eleven 16-year-olds, 3 Male Questions regarding general computer use and affect Five search tasks, ranging in difficulty and agency

Data Analysis Examined the Search Task portions of the interviews for 4 aspects: (Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1998) Flow Artifact Culture Sequence

Roles Developing Searcher Domain-Specific Searcher Power Searcher Non-Motivated Searcher Distracted Searcher Visual Searcher Rule-Bound Searcher ______________________________

Roles Developing Searcher Domain-Specific Searcher Power Searcher Visual Searcher Doubting Searcher Social Searcher Non-Motivated Searcher Rule-Bound Searcher

Developing Searcher Difficulty when facing multi-step search task Limited knowledge and use of search engine tools Unplanned, wandering search paths Focused on search tasks Perceive themselves as advanced users

Domain-Specific Searcher Expertise in specific content area of interest Expertise does not transfer to general searching ability Influenced by family

Visual Searcher Prefer to look for information using images or video Verbally discuss videos and images Widely influenced by friends, school, and siblings Broadly triggered to searching by personal interests, school, music, events, and conversations

Non-Motivated Searcher Minimally engaged during interview, limited verbal response Unfocused, distracted search behaviors Physically distant from the computer Shortest possible, most efficient search paths Only triggered to search by school

Rule-Bound Searcher Searching is dictated by a set of rigid guidelines Display trust in their searching patterns Double-check results Rate themselves as less skilled at early ages Report outside influence when describing how they learned to search; from school or by watching friends

Power Searcher Confident, verbal Use of search engine tools Self-report advanced use at a young age More influenced by fathers than other roles Some report no frustrations with the computer Have programming abilities

Differences from younger children: Natural language queries Higher overall level of expertise Power Searcher

Doubting Searcher Asking clarifying questions Rate themselves as less skilled Report social use of the computer as a favorite activity All report influence from school and spend more time searching for school Heavily female

Social Searcher Use of social networking or communication sites Instigating conversations with other people on and offline while using the computer Broadly triggered to search by images, music, conversations, personal interests, and school

Druin, et al., 2010

Role Connections

Conclusions Some search behaviors are more permanent, while others develop later Educators, parents and designers can use search roles as guide to promote search literacy – Teach skills of Power Searchers to all – Social searching for adolescents – Use domains as access points to motivate search

Future Work Full study with 15 and 16-year-olds, 80 planned participants. How to truly challenge more expert searchers? Comparative analysis with data from younger children.

Acknowledgements Thank you to the participating families! This research was made possible with a Google University Research Grant.

References Beyer, H., and Holtzblatt, K. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco CA, USA, (1998). Druin, A., Foss, E., Hatley, L., Golub, E., Guha, M.L., Fails, J., and Hutchinson, H. How children search the Internet with keyword interfaces. In Proc. IDC 2009, ACM Press (2009), Druin, A., Foss, E., Hutchinson, H., Golub, E., and Hatley, L. Children’s roles using keyword search interfaces at home. In Proc. of CHI 2010, ACM Press (2010), Smith, M., Milic-Frayling, N., Shneiderman, B., Mendes Rodrigues, E., Leskovec, J., Dunne, C., (2010). NodeXL: a free and open network overview, discovery and exploration add-in for Excel 2007/2010, from the Social Media Research Foundation,