Autocomplete as Research Tool: A Study on Providing Search Suggestions

Authors

  • David Ward University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
  • Jim Hahn University of Illinois
  • Kirsten Feist University of Illinois

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v31i4.1930

Abstract

As the library website and on its online searching tools become the primary “branch” many users visit for their research, methods for providing automated, context-sensitive research assistance need to be developed to guide unmediated searching towards the most relevant results.  This study examines one such method, the use of autocompletion in search interfaces, by conducting usability tests on its use in typical academic research scenarios.  The study reports notable findings on user preference for autocomplete features, and suggests best practices for their implementation.

Author Biographies

David Ward, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

David Ward is Reference Service Librarian for the University of Illinois Undergraduate Library.

Jim Hahn, University of Illinois

Jim Hahn is Orientation Services and Environments Librarian at the University of Illinois Undergraduate Library.

Kirsten Feist, University of Illinois

Kirsten Fiest is a pre-professional Graduate Assistant at eh University of Illinois Undergraduate Library.

References

Google. “Autocomplete - Web Search Help.” Accessed February 7, 2012. http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=106230

Mischo, William. (2011) Internal use study, unpublished.

Nandi, Arnab, and H. V. Jagadish. “Assisted querying using instant-response interfaces.” Proceedings of the 2007 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2007. 1156–1158. SIGMOD ’07.

Jung, Hanmin et al. “Comparative Evaluation of Reliabilities on Semantic Search Functions: Auto-complete and Entity-Centric Unified Search.” Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Active Media Technology. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2009. 104–113. AMT ’09.

Jung, Hanmin et al. “Auto-complete for Improving Reliability on Semantic Web Service Framework.” Proceedings of the Symposium on Human Interface 2009 on Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Interaction. Part II: Held as part of HCI International 2009. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, 2009. 36–44. Web. 7 Feb. 2012.

Hao Wu. "Search-As-You-Type in Forms: Leveraging the Usability and the Functionality of Search Paradigm in Relational Databases." VLDB (PhD Workshop), 36-41. 2010. Accessed February 7, 2012. http://www.vldb2010.org/proceedings/files/vldb_2010_workshop/PhD_Workshop_2010/PhD%20Workshop/Content/p7.pdf

Chaudhuri, Surajit, and Raghav Kaushik. “Extending autocompletion to tolerate errors.” Proceedings of the 35th SIGMOD international conference on Management of data. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2009. 707–718. SIGMOD ’09. Accessed February 7, 2012. http://reasearch.microsoft.com/pubs/80005/sigmod513.pdf

See note 6, above.

See note 3, above.

See note 3, above.

Paek, Tim, Bongshin Lee, and Bo Thiesson. “Designing phrase builder: a mobile real-time query expansion interface.” Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2009. 7:1–7:10. MobileHCI ’09.

White, Ryen W., and Gary Marchionini. “Examining the effectiveness of real-time query expansion.” Inf. Process. Manage. 43.3 (2007): 685–704

Jacob Nielsen’s Alertbox. “Why You Only Need to Test with 5 Users.” Accessed February 7, 2012. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000319.html

See also: Webdesigner Depot. “Interview with Web Usability Guru, Jakob Nielsen.” Accessed February 7,2012. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/09/interview-with-web-usability-guru-jakob-nielsen/

See note 12, above.

Alison J. Head and Michael B. Eisenberg, “Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age,” Project Information Literacy Progress Report (December), 2009. Accessed February 7, 2012. http://projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_Fall2009_finalv_YR1_12_2009v2.pdf

Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education." Accessed February 7, 2012. http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency

Ibid.

See note 16, above.

Downloads

Published

2012-12-12

How to Cite

Ward, D., Hahn, J., & Feist, K. (2012). Autocomplete as Research Tool: A Study on Providing Search Suggestions. Information Technology and Libraries, 31(4), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.6017/ital.v31i4.1930

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Section

Articles