The impacts of time constraint on users' search strategy during search process

Abstract

This study examined the effects of time constraints on searchers' information search strategies during search process, particularly at two search stages (first round and end point). A user experiment with forty participants was conducted, and each participant was asked to search with and without time constraint. The results showed that time constraint had significant effect on users' first/mean dwell time on search engine result pages (SERPs) during the first query interval; however, time constraint did not influence their dwell time on SERPs or content pages when the whole session was considered, and it only had significant effect on the number of pages viewed per query. The findings indicated that users did employ different search strategies when searching with and without time constraint, and their search strategies changed over time within the search session. Generally, when there was no time constraint, users tended to employ economic-style search strategy at the beginning of search; but when given time constraint, they became more selective and cautious in examining the search results. The findings of this study have implications for search system design to assist searchers under time constraint and help them search more effectively and efficiently.