How Readability Cues Affect Children's Navigation of Search Engine Result Pages

Christine Pinney, Benjamin J. Bettencourt, Jerry Alan Fails, Casey Kennington, Katherine Landau Wright, Maria Soledad Pera

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

Children often interact with search engines within a classroom context to complete assignments or discover new information. To successfully identify relevant resources among those presented on a search engine results page (SERP), users must first be able to comprehend the text included in SERP snippets. While this task may be straightforward for an adult user, children may encounter obstacles in terms of readability and comprehension when attempting to navigate a SERP. Previous research has demonstrated the positive impact of including visual cues on a SERP as relevance signals to guide children toward appropriate resources. In this work, we explore the effect of supplying visual cues related to readability and text difficulty on children's (ages 6-12) navigation of a SERP. Using quantitative data collected from user-interface interactions and qualitative data gathered from participant interviews, we analyze the impact of these visual cues on children's selection of results on a SERP when carrying out information discovery tasks.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference
Subtitle of host publicationInclusive Happiness, IDC 2024
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages62-69
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9798400704420
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
Event23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC 2024 - Delft, Netherlands
Duration: 17 Jun 202420 Jun 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings of ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference: Inclusive Happiness, IDC 2024

Conference

Conference23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, IDC 2024
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityDelft
Period17/06/2420/06/24

Keywords

  • children
  • text complexity
  • visual cues
  • Web search

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