Exploratory Search Behaviors in Linear List Visualization

Presenting hyperlinks in the form of linear lists is the mainstream visualization method of semantic information space. Users need to click hyperlinks and jump to multiple pages to forage information and perceive the relation between pages and the connectivity within information space. The jumping process would interfere with the learning and understanding of the semantic information space, increase cognitive load of information retrieval and degrade user experience. In this paper, an experiment is conducted to investigate the exploratory search behaviors in linear list visualization. We create two exploratory search tasks, and use process analysis and questionnaire surveys to study users' disorientation, their search behaviors, and search preferences. Results confirm the learning characteristic of exploratory search, which is specifically manifested in their continuous searching through multiple interactions with the searching system, and adjusting search strategies and methods until the search task is completed. Two search preferences based on retrieval keywords and literatures are observed in the search. Through observations and surveys, we find it is difficult for users to build the mental map between hyperlinks and the information space using a linear list visualization. They will get lost with deeper information searching. This paper can inspire the information retrieval and multimedia system designers to be more considerate of users' learning abilities and their perceptual bottleneck.