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:
Flow
Artifact
Culture
Sequence
(Beyer and Holtzblatt, 1998)
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
Power Searcher
Differences from younger children:
Natural language queries
Higher overall level of expertise
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), 89-96.
• 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), 413-422.
• Smith, M., Milic-Frayling, N., Shneiderman, B., Mendes
Rodrigues, E., Leskovec, J., Dunne, C., (2010). NodeXL: a free
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