Facilitating Browsing with Information Visualization: Is Animation a Powerful Scent?

Abstract

Search engines make vast amounts of information available to Internet users. Two types of tasks users engage in using search engines are closed-ended and open-ended. For closed-ended tasks, individuals have narrow objectives that require finding specific results. For open-ended tasks, individuals only have general objectives that require finding as much relevant information as possible about a topic, which can be difficult when large numbers of both relevant and irrelevant results are returned from a query. This can also leave users in a state of information overload. Some search engines have incorporated information visualization techniques (combining cognitive senses with visual cues that allow for better understanding the information) to facilitate browsing through results in order to reduce information overload. However, there is little research that identifies which visual cues are the most desirable for the presentation of search results. According to information foraging theory, cues that have strong scents will help users find information faster. In this study, we investigate the effects of augmenting visualizations with animation as a powerful scent to help users more easily identify relevant information in search engine results. This study employs cognitive fit theory to study the effect of different information formats on users' performance in completing the two different tasks. Overall, we find evidence that the effectiveness of cues such as animation is task-dependent. For example, we find that visualizations with animation are less effective than a standard textual display for subjects performing closed-ended web search tasks. The results of this study have strong implications for integrating appropriate cues into visualizations in order to help people find information.