How Children Search
Online a t H o m e
University of Maryland/ Google1
Allison Druin, Elizabeth Foss, Hilary Hutchinson1, Evan Golub, Leshell Hatley
HCIL Symposium 2010
A 7 - ye a r o l d i s s e a r c h i n g f o r d o l p h i n s …
“…I don’t know how to spell it….[Types the letters: ‘d-o’] There’s no
dolphin…[Places chin in left hand] I don’t know.” …[Then the boy types an ‘l’ in
the text box. After staring at the screen for about 45 seconds] Still no dolphin!
[The boy adds an ‘F’ to the text box, clicks on search and looks through the
results page for 10 more seconds….Slowly the child removes his right hand from
the mouse and while leaning and mumbling through his left hand and looking
down at the keyboard. He says quietly:]
I don’t know what to do now…”
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
S ys t e m a t i c , o r d e r l y, e s t a b l i s h e d m o d e l s …
•The Big Six (Eisenberg et al., 1990)
•Information Search Process (Kuhlthau, 2004)
•Information Skills (Todd, 2003)
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Need to focus on…
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Need to focus on…
•Vast information spaces…
•Informal information seeking…
•Children’s curiosity, failures, & age differences…
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Research Methods…
•83 children & their parent(s)
•41(g) 42 (b); ages 7, 9, 11
•Parents interviewed
•Children interviewed & observed use
-how do you usually search?
-search for information on dolphins?
-search for information for your own interest?
-on which day of the week next year is the VP’s birthday?
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Research Methods…
•Aggregated data adapting Beyer & Holtzblatt (1998)
-flow…sequence…artifact…culture…
•Identified aspects: data coding methods (Strauss, 1987)
-open coding…sorting, comparing, and categorizing
-axial coding…refining specific areas of data
-saturated…until no new aspects emerged
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Research Methods…
•Search Roles emerged defined by
-age…7, 9, 11
-gender…girl/boy
-behavioral trends…due to skill, motivation, focus, etc.
-triggers…incentives for initiating a search
-breakdowns…barriers to completing a search
-frequency of role…how often roles seen during session
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Search Roles…
•Developingsearcher…
most common role- willing, but not consistently successful
•Domain-Specificsearcher…
limits searching experience to specific content areas
•Powersearcher…
ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective
•Non-motivatedsearcher…
limited interest, experience, and ability searching
•Distractedsearcher…
easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect
•Visualsearcher…
limited to visual searching and results presented visually
•Rule-boundsearcher…
unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Search Roles…
•Developingsearcher…
most common role- willing, but not consistently successful
•Domain-Specificsearcher…
limits searching experience to specific content areas
•Powersearcher…
ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective
•Non-motivatedsearcher…
limited interest, experience, and ability searching
r
•Distractedsearcher…
1-4 roles
per
child
easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect
7-yr olds: most roles
•Visualsearcher…
limited to visual searching and results presented visually
•Rule-boundsearcher…
unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
7
9
11
Search Roles…
•Developingsearcher…
most common role- willing, but not consistently successful
•Domain-Specificsearcher…
limits searching experience to specific content areas
•Powersearcher…
ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective
•Non-motivatedsearcher…
limited interest, experience, and ability searching
•Distractedsearcher…
easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect
•Visualsearcher…
limited to visual searching and results presented visually
•Rule-boundsearcher…
unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
7
M
FF
Search Roles…
•Developingsearcher…
most common role- willing, but not consistently successful
9 11
•Domain-Specificsearcher…
limits searching experience to specific content areas
•Powersearcher…
ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective
•Non-motivatedsearcher…
limited interest, experience, and ability searching
•Distractedsearcher…
easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect
•Visualsearcher…
limited to visual searching and results presented visually
•Rule-boundsearcher…
unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Dealing with Barriers to Search…
•When attempting to find VP’s birthday next year:
•Boys had fewer “breakdowns” to search than girls
-girls averaged 2.54 breakdowns per child
-boys averaged 0.65 breakdowns per child
•Boys declined to search almost 2/3rds more
•Girls persisted more than boys
•Boys dealt with barriers by problem-solving
•Girls dealt with barriers by focusing on negatives
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
T h e Vi c e P r e s i d e n t ’s B i r t h d a y N e x t Ye a r …
•Three queries to find answer
1-the vice president is… “Michelle Obama” “Not Obama”
2-his birthday is…“not important” “Does his birthday change?”
3-calendar… “I’m not good at math” “algorithm”
•Approx. 20% of children could find the answer
The Biden Effect:
0.5% success pre
27% successpost
-no 7yr-olds, 20% 9yr-olds, 42% 11yr-olds
-8 girls, 9 boys
•First stage failures (29 girls, 18 boys)
•Wouldn’t even try (11 total)
-either non-motivated or distracted searchers
-3 girls, 8 boys
•Stopped mostly between 2nd & 3rd stages
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Future Directions…
•Design for multiple roles
multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context
•Learn from Powersearchers
facile with keywords, ability to digest results
•Challenge known barriers
motivation deficits, ongoing distractions, limiting rules
•Create excitement about searching
leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models
•Consider technology as influencers
could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Future Directions…
•Design for multiple roles
multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context
Motivation prompts…
•Learn from Powersearchers
facile with keywords, ability to digest results
•Challenge known barriers
motivation
deficits,
distractions, limiting rules
Image or
content
asongoing
input…
•Create excitement about searching
leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models
Results
filtering…
•Consider technology
as influencers
could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor
How Children Search… Symposium 2010
Acknowledgements…
•Google Research Awards 2008, 2009
•Dan Russell, Google User Experience
•All the children & parents
who let us into their homes
•
team:
Robin Brewer, Mona Leigh Guha, Beth Bonsignore,
Greg Walsh, Quincy Brown, Alex Quinn, Ben Bederson,
Ann Weeks, Sonia Franckel
How Children Search… Symposium 2010