An analysis of free-text queries for a multi-field web form

TY - CHAP

T1 - An analysis of free-text queries for a multi-field web form

AU - Tjin-Kam-Jet, K.

AU - Trieschnigg, D.

AU - Hiemstra, D.

N1 - Reporting year: 2012

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - We report how users interact with an experimental system that transforms single-field textual input into a multi-field query for an existing travel planner system. The experimental system was made publicly available and we collected over 30,000 queries from almost 12,000 users. From the free-text query log, we examined how users formulated structured information needs into free-text queries. The query log analysis shows that there is great variety in query formulation, over 400 query templates were found that occurred at least 4 times. Furthermore, with over 100 respondents to our questionnaire, we provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicating that end-users significantly prefer a single field interface over a multi-field interface when performing structured search.

AB - We report how users interact with an experimental system that transforms single-field textual input into a multi-field query for an existing travel planner system. The experimental system was made publicly available and we collected over 30,000 queries from almost 12,000 users. From the free-text query log, we examined how users formulated structured information needs into free-text queries. The query log analysis shows that there is great variety in query formulation, over 400 query templates were found that occurred at least 4 times. Furthermore, with over 100 respondents to our questionnaire, we provide both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicating that end-users significantly prefer a single field interface over a multi-field interface when performing structured search.

U2 - 10.1145/2362724.2362742

DO - 10.1145/2362724.2362742

M3 - Contribution to conference proceedings

SN - 978-1-4503-1282-0

SP - 82

EP - 89

BT - Proceedings of the 4th Information Interaction in Context Symposium (IIIX 2012)

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

CY - New York

ER -