An evaluation of a visual interface for supporting query formulation in scholarly searching

Performing an effective literature review is a fundamental academic skill. Whether writing up a final project, preparing a research proposal, or simply finding answers to complex questions, students need to be able to systematically gather and analyse evidence from a variety of sources. However, many students have difficulty formulating effective search queries and understanding how to optimise their search strategy. This paper evaluates a novel approach to query formulation based on an alternative, visual interface. The approach is evaluated alongside a conventional, form-based interface in a comparative, controlled setting. The study finds that overall, participants considered the visual interface to be more complex and difficult to use. However, at the same time they used significantly more terms, facets and reformulations in the visual interface, and gave more attention to creating and refining more complex queries. In addition, the majority considered the visual interface to have greater transparency, with a clearer overview of the search tasks that encouraged them to invest greater effort in completing them successfully. The results demonstrate that visual approaches can offer tangible benefits in developing and improving students’ competence in exploratory search tasks.