1. Online How Children Search University of Maryland/ Google 1 Allison Druin, Elizabeth Foss, Hilary Hutchinson 1, Evan Golub, Leshell Hatley HCIL Symposium 2010 at Home

2. A 7-year old is searching for dolphins… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

3. Systematic, orderly, established models… The Big Six (Eisenberg et al., 1990) Information Search Process (Kuhlthau, 2004) Information Skills (Todd, 2003) How Children Search… Symposium 2010

4. Need to focus on… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

5. Need to focus on… Vast information spaces… Informal information seeking… Children’s curiosity, failures, & age differences… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

6. Research Methods… 83 children & their parent(s) 41(g) 42 (b); ages 7, 9, 11 Parents interviewed Children interviewed & observed use -how do you usually search? -search for information on dolphins? -search for information for your own interest? -on which day of the week next year is the VP’s birthday? How Children Search… Symposium 2010

7. Aggregated data adapting Beyer & Holtzblatt (1998) -flow…sequence…artifact…culture… Identified aspects: data coding methods (Strauss, 1987) -open coding… sorting, comparing, and categorizing -axial coding… refining specific areas of data -saturated… until no new aspects emerged Research Methods… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

8. Search Roles emerged defined by -age… 7, 9, 11 -gender… girl/boy -behavioral trends… due to skill, motivation, focus, etc. -triggers… incentives for initiating a search -breakdowns… barriers to completing a search -frequency of role… how often roles seen during session Research Methods… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

9. Developingsearcher… most common role- willing, but not consistently successful Domain-Specificsearcher… limits searching experience to specific content areas Powersearcher… ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective Non-motivatedsearcher… limited interest, experience, and ability searching Distractedsearcher… easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect Visualsearcher… limited to visual searching and results presented visually Rule-boundsearcher… unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations Search Roles… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

10. Developingsearcher… most common role- willing, but not consistently successful Domain-Specificsearcher… limits searching experience to specific content areas Powersearcher… ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective Non-motivatedsearcher… limited interest, experience, and ability searching Distractedsearcher… easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect Visualsearcher… limited to visual searching and results presented visually Rule-boundsearcher… unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations Search Roles… r 1-4 roles per child 7-yr olds: most roles How Children Search… Symposium 2010

11. Search Roles… 7 9 11 Developingsearcher… most common role- willing, but not consistently successful Domain-Specificsearcher… limits searching experience to specific content areas Powersearcher… ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective Non-motivatedsearcher… limited interest, experience, and ability searching Distractedsearcher… easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect Visualsearcher… limited to visual searching and results presented visually Rule-boundsearcher… unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations How Children Search… Symposium 2010

12. 9 11 7 F F Search Roles… M Developingsearcher… most common role- willing, but not consistently successful Domain-Specificsearcher… limits searching experience to specific content areas Powersearcher… ability to understand and use keywords, sophisticated/reflective Non-motivatedsearcher… limited interest, experience, and ability searching Distractedsearcher… easily distracted by movement and sound, difficult to redirect Visualsearcher… limited to visual searching and results presented visually Rule-boundsearcher… unable to adapt rules to different searches and situations How Children Search… Symposium 2010

13. When attempting to find VP’s birthday next year: Boys had fewer “breakdowns” to search than girls -girls averaged 2.54 breakdowns per child -boys averaged 0.65 breakdowns per child Boys declined to search almost 2/3rds more Girls persisted more than boys Boys dealt with barriers by problem-solving Girls dealt with barriers by focusing on negatives Dealing with Barriers to Search… All ages… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

14. Three queries to find answer 1-the vice president is… “Michelle Obama” “Not Obama” 2-his birthday is… “not important” “Does his birthday change?” 3-calendar… “I’m not good at math” “algorithm” Approx. 20% of children could find the answer -no 7yr-olds, 20% 9yr-olds, 42% 11yr-olds -8 girls, 9 boys First stage failures (29 girls, 18 boys) Wouldn’t even try (11 total) -either non-motivated or distracted searchers -3 girls, 8 boys Stopped mostly between 2 nd & 3 rd stages The Vice President’s Birthday Next Year… The Biden Effect: The Biden Effect: 0.5% success pre 27% successpost How Children Search… Symposium 2010

15. Design for multiple roles multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context Learn from Powersearchers facile with keywords, ability to digest results Challenge known barriers motivation deficits, ongoing distractions, limiting rules Create excitement about searching leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models Consider technology as influencers could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor Future Directions… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

16. Design for multiple roles multiple roles in 1 session, varying roles depending on context Learn from Powersearchers facile with keywords, ability to digest results Challenge known barriers motivation deficits, ongoing distractions, limiting rules Create excitement about searching leveraging personal interest information, offer possible models Consider technology as influencers could be a fixer, demonstrator, & mentor Future Directions… How Children Search… Symposium 2010

17. Google Research Awards 2008, 2009 Dan Russell, Google User Experience All the children & parents who let us into their homes team: Robin Brewer, Mona Leigh Guha, Beth Bonsignore, Greg Walsh, Quincy Brown, Alex Quinn, Ben Bederson, Ann Weeks, Sonia Franckel Acknowledgements… How Children Search… Symposium 2010