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Children use popular web search tools, which are generally designed for adult users. Because children have different developmental needs than adults, these tools may not always adequately support their search for information. Moreover, even though search tools offer support to help in query formulation, these too are aimed at adults and may hinder children rather than help them. This calls for the examination of existing technologies in this area, to better understand what remains to be done when it comes to facilitating query-formulation tasks for young users. In this paper, we investigate interaction elements of query formulation--including query suggestion algorithms--for children. The primary goals of our research efforts are to: (i) examine existing plug-ins and interfaces that explicitly aid children's query formulation; (ii) investigate children's interactions with suggestions offered by a general-purpose query suggestion strategy vs. a counterpart designed with children in mind; and (iii) identify, via participatory design sessions, their preferences when it comes to tools / strategies that can help children find information and guide them through the query formulation process. Our analysis shows that existing tools do not meet children's needs and expectations; the outcomes of our work can guide researchers and developers as they implement query formulation strategies for children.
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Adding Domain-Specific Features to a Text-Editor to Support Diverse, Real-World Approaches to Time Management Planning
Many tools are designed to support users in maintaining or developing strong time management practices. Abandonment of these specialized tools is common, in favor of returning to a more general-purpose unstructured tool. How can designs leverage the familiarity of general-purpose tools and the advantages of specialized ones? We explore if applying a time-management-specific understanding of conventions and interactions within unstructured plaintext can be a successful approach to designing support for these tasks. We report the results of two field deployments (combined n=29) of “Plan” - a mobile application with a notes-application-based interface designed to support the practice of Time Management Planning. We show that modest, domain-specific modifications of general-purpose designs can facilitate users’ pre-existing workflows and nudge them towards better practices while leaving interfaces familiar and flexible. However, those with minimal planning experience desired additional structure.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1936071
- PAR ID:
- 10486355
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 9781450394215
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 13
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Hamburg Germany
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581536
