A comparison of children's and adults' retrieval performances and affective reactions when using a conventional interface and an information visualization interface

Abstract

Reports on an exploratory study of the performance and affective responses of children compared with adults when using a conventional tree structured interface and an information visualization interface to identify subject terms embedded in a hierarchical subject taxonomy. It is part of a larger project to investigate the efficacy of information visualization as a means to enhance web-based subject taxonomies. The study found that adults were more successful at locating terms than children, but that there was no significant difference in the times taken to complete a successful search by children and adults. It also found that the affective reactions to the conventional interface versus the information visualization interface were very similar among the children and the adults. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.