REFOCUS: Current & Future Search Interface Requirements for German-speaking Users
This addresses the problem of adapting search interfaces for novel devices beyond smartphones, which is incremental as it builds on existing interface design principles.
The study investigated German-speaking users' perceptions and expectations of current and future search interfaces, finding that while they are satisfied with desktop and mobile search, they are skeptical about novel devices like Smart TVs. It derived REFOCUS, a validated set of requirements to improve search interfaces for these new devices.
While smartphones are widely used for web browsing, also other novel devices like Smart TVs become increasingly popular. Yet, current interfaces do not cater for the newly available devices beyond touch and small screens, if at all for the latter. Particularly search engines -- today's entry points of the WWW -- must ensure their interfaces are easy to use on any web-enabled device. We report on a survey that investigated (1) users' perception and usage of current search interfaces, and (2) their expectations towards current and future search interfaces. Users are mostly satisfied with desktop and mobile search, but seem to be skeptical towards web search with novel devices and input modalities. Hence, we derive REFOCUS -- a novel set of requirements for current and future search interfaces, which shall address the demand for improvement of novel web search and has been validated by 12 dedicated experts.