A Task-Based Evaluation of an Aggregated Search Interface

Abstract. This paper presents a user study that evaluated the effective-ness of an aggregated search interface in the context of non-navigational search tasks. An experimental system was developed to present search results aggregated from multiple information sources, and compared to a conventional tabbed interface. Sixteen participants were recruited to evaluate the performance of the two interfaces. Our results suggest that the aggregated search interface is a promising way of supporting non-navigational search tasks. The quantity and diversity of the retrieved items which participants accessed to complete a task, increased in the aggregated interface. Participants also found the aggregated presenta-tion easier to access to retrieved items and to find relevant information, compared to the conventional interface.