Análisis de la oferta

During this next section of the study, I’m going to play back a screen recording of the actions you took during the last task you completed. While you watch this recording, I would like for you to state aloud why you took the actions shown on the screen and what

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you were thinking when you took those actions. I would like you to walk me through the decision-making processes you underwent as you searched. There are no right or wrong answers here. I am simply looking for your thoughts as you review the steps you took during the experiment. Even minor thoughts will be helpful to this study.

After reading the instructions, the screen recording was started of the last task the participant completed. This made it possible to collect information about the tactics and strategies participants used to begin their last search tasks.

Participants talked about starting their search tasks in a number of ways. By the order of the number of participants who were coded with these instances, the tactics participants used for starting their search tasks were: by formulating the first query (code: formulate a query), looking for general information about the task topic (code: gather general information), looking for specific kinds of websites to find information (code: look for specific kinds of websites), looking for specific information about the task topic (code: find specific information), actively seeking or avoiding certain criteria of information (code: employ inclusion or exclusion criteria), or re- orienting the task scenario as if it were applying to their personal situation (code: apply task to self). These codes and the number of participants who were coded with that instance, along with the number of instances of it mentioned by participants (No. References) are shown in Table 29. Table 29. Nodes and Subnodes for Starting the Search Task

Nodes and Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

A. Task Start Tactics and Strategies 44 63

Formulate a Query 16 16

Look for Specific Kinds of Websites 13 13

Gather General Information 12 12

Find Specific Information 8 9

Employ Inclusion Criteria 7 8

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The highest number of participants in the sample (N = 16 out of 44) said that the first thing they did when starting the search task was procedural, that is, to create the first search query (code: Formulate a Query) (Table 30). To formulate their first queries, participants used a number of approaches. The most popular approach was to use words from the task scenario as keywords (N = 11 of 16). An example of this was the explanation from P46: “I wasn't sure what

the most appropriate term to use was. I mean I've seen commercials on it and so I just looked. I used the prompt as my first attempt at terminology.” In terms of the task topics for this code, 10 of the 11 participants who used this approach for querying were completing the payday loan task. The large number of participants on this task for this code makes sense, given that of the three tasks, the payday loan task was the only task that did not provide the name of the financial product in the task scenario language. Other approaches were to simply type the financial product name into the search box (N = 3 of 16), think about the specific query terms to use (N = 1 of 16), or use the auto-complete query that came up in Google (N = 1 of 16).

Table 30. Codes for Formulating a Query

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Formulate a Query 16 16

Use task words for query 11 11

Use product name for query 3 3

Use auto-complete for query 1 1

Think about what query terms to use 1 1

The second most frequently mentioned way (N = 13 participants) for starting the search task was to start with a narrow focus by looking for specific websites (code: Look for Specific Kinds of Websites) (Table 31). The most often mentioned type of specific website mentioned by participants were government websites (N = 9 participants). These participants indicated that

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they intentionally looked for government websites or government-sponsored information at the beginning of their search processes. Four of these participants were completing the reverse mortgage task, three were completing the student loans task, and two were completing the payday loans task. One participant explained his strategy for starting his search about the student loan task in this way: “One of the first things I wanted to do instead of going to the .coms was to go to ed.gov because what better way to start searching then (on) something that’s sponsored by the government?” (P21). Other participants chose to start their searches on government websites once they saw those websites appear on the SERP: “a government site came up in search results, so I figured that was a good place to start” (P02). Other kinds of sites participants mentioned they looked for were non-profit websites with the “.org” domain, educational websites with the “.edu” domain, and commercial website with the “.net” domain. Two participants indicated they went to websites they knew about.

Table 31. Codes for Looking for Specific Kinds of Websites

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Look for Specific Kinds of Websites 13 13

.gov or government websites 9 9

.org and .edu first 1 1

.org and .net first 1 1

Go to site I have used before 1 1

I know exactly which site to go to 1 1

Some participants (N = 12) took a more general approach to starting their search tasks by looking for general information about the financial product in the task (code: Gather General Information) (Table 32). Five participants who were all completing the reverse mortgage task, said they started the task by looking for a definition for the financial product. Three participants,

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all completing the student loans task, said they wanted to search for basic information. Three participants said they wanted to start by looking for general or main information about the financial product. One participant (P40), said she was interested in finding the kinds of basic information about payday loans she could use to explain the financial product to someone who knew little about it.

Table 32. Codes for Gathering General Information

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Gather General Information 12 12

Definition for the Product 5 5

Basic Information 3 3

General or Main Information 3 3

Ways to Explain it to Someone Else 1 1

Another group of participants (N = 8) took a narrow approach to their search tasks by seeking specific kinds of information (code: Find Specific Information) (Table 33). These participants either explicitly stated they started the search by looking for answers to the guiding questions from the task scenarios (N = 4 of 7) or implicitly by saying they started by looking for information on how loan payments worked for student loans (N = 3 of 7). One participant (P01) started the search task on students loans by searching for the specific types of student loans. Another participant (P08) said he started his search task on student loans by looking for ways to refinance student loans into “cheaper options,” even though there was no indication in the task scenario that the student loans were costly.

117 Table 33. Codes for Finding Specific Information

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Find Specific Information 8 9

Answer the task questions 7 7

Find cheaper options 1 1

Find loan types 1 1

A small group of participants’ (N = 7) first statements about starting their search tasks were about the kinds of information they wished to avoid or exclude from their searching (code:

Employ Exclusion Criteria) (Table 34). Four participants indicated they wanted to avoid lenders at this early stage of their search tasks. Each of the three search tasks was represented in that group. Other kinds of sites participants wished to exclude from their searching were commercial loan sites (N = 2), advertisements (N = 1), and “.coms” or commercial websites (N = 1).

Table 34. Codes for Employing Exclusion Criteria

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Employ Exclusion Criteria 7 8

Avoid lenders at this point 4 4

Be wary of commercial loan sites 2 2

Avoid .coms at beginning of search 1 1

Avoid ads 1 1

The final subnode for how people began their search tasks has to do with participants (N = 2) who applied the task scenario to their own personal contexts (code: Apply Task to Self) (Table 35) as a way to interpret the task or determine what kind of advice to give their friend (i.e., for the payday loan scenario).

118 Table 35. Codes for Applying Task to Self

Subnodes No.

Participants

No. References

Apply Task to Self 2 2

Apply task to myself so I can interpret it 1 1

Put the task into my own context 1 1

5.4.1.2. Resources and sources tactics and strategies. The second largest subnode of