Why do users feel search task difficult?
Jingjing Liu, Chang Suk Kim, Caitlin Creel · Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology · 2013
Abstract This paper reports on an examination of why information searchers find search tasks difficult and the specific reasons they feel difficult. Data was collected through a controlled laboratory experiment with 32 participants, each working with 4 search tasks. They were asked in questionnaires, both before and after the tasks, for task difficulty ratings and their reasoning for giving those ratings. We developed a coding scheme based on the difficulty reasons users gave, which covered various aspects of task, user, and user‐task interaction. This helps us understand search task difficulty, as well as provides a scheme for task difficulty control in experiment task design.