Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Previous research has shown that users scan traditional text-based web pages using an “F-shaped” pattern. Evidence of this pattern exists because of the hierarchical structure of search engine result pages (SERP). With the recent implementation of Windows 8, search results are presented as a horizontal grid rather than a list. Due to the structural differences between the list and grid layouts, it is reasonable to postulate that users would exhibit dissimilar scanning patterns between layouts. This study compared the eye-tracking data of two SERP layouts (grid vs. list) with two types of tasks (informational vs. navigational) to observe differences in gaze patterns. Results indicated that users viewed the top left quadrants of the grid layout the most. However, there was little consensus as to how the results were ordered in the grid, unlike the list layout.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bar-Ilan

Kennoy

Levene

Yaari

(2009). Presentation bias is significant in determining user preference for search results-A user study. Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology, 60, 135-149.

Brooke

(1996). SUS: A quick and dirty usability scale. In Jordan

Thomas

Weerdmeester

McClelland

I. L.

(Eds.), Usability evaluation in industry (pp. 189-194). London, UK: Taylor & Francis.

Granka

Joachims

Gay

(2004). Eye-tracking analysis of user behavior in www search. In Proceedings of the 27th Annual ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in information Retrieval (pp. 478–479).

Guan

Cutrell

(2007). An eye tracking study of the effect of target rank on Web search. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 417–420).

Kammerer

Gerjets

(2014). The role of search result position and source trustworthiness in the selection of web search results when using a list or a grid interface. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 30, 177-191.

Keane

M. T.

O’Brien

Smyth

(2008). Are people biased in their use of search engines? Communications of the ACM, 51, 49–52.

Nielsen

(2006). F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content. Retrieved November 1st, 2013 from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/f-shaped-pattern-reading-web-content/

Nielsen

(2010). Scrolling and attention. Retrieved July 1st, 2014 from http://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/

Pan

Hembrooke

Joachims

Lorigo

Gay

Granka

(2007). In Google we trust: Users’ decisions on rank, position, and relevance. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12, 801–823.

10.

Shrestha

Lenz

Owens

Chaparro

B. S.

(2007). F-Pattern Scanning of Text and Images on Web Pages. In Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, (pp.1200-1204).

11.

Shrestha

Owens

Chaparro

B. S.

(2008). Eye Movements on a Single-Column and Double-Column Text Layout. In Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, (pp. 1599-1603).

12.

Shrestha

(2012). The effect of search engine results page presentation style on user satisfaction and eye movements. (Doctoral dissertation, Wichita State University). Retrieved August 2013, from SOAR: Shocker Open Access Repository. (Publication No. d12039)

13.

Warren

(2014). Windows 8 passes 2 million license sales. Retrieved July 1st 2014 from http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/13/5408666/windows-8-200-million-license-sales.

First Look

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References