Compatibilidad y conflictos con el uso social

Similar to findings from Thatcher (2006), participants had clear strategies for starting their searches. What was noticeably absent from this data, however, was any kind of serious concern on the part of participants when it came to entering queries into the search system. Developing queries seemed to be a low-cost activity for participants. They were quick to use whatever language on the screen seemed best to them for their queries, whether that was from the search task description, the SERP snippets, or the section titles of webpage documents. Participants typed in many queries and they did so quickly, often in lieu of scanning further down on the SERP. Many used the query auto-completion feature of Google. It may be that the combination of being able to type quickly, use the query auto-completion feature, or click on the “did you mean --?” spell-correct feature of Google has made querying such a low-cost activity for participants that it is faster and easier for them to type a new query to get new results to appear at the top of the SERP than it is to review all the links down the page on the SERP. For exploratory search tasks, querying behaviors such as these which emphasize precision over recall will be less effective for users (Marchionini, 1995). Optimal recall-oriented behaviors involve spending more time developing queries and viewing deeper-level links on SERPs. For example, Azzopardi et al. (2013) tested query interface designs and SERP-viewing behaviors and found

156

that when users spent more time on querying, they investigated results farther down on the SERP. Qvarfordt, Golovchinsky, Dunnigan, and Agapie (2013) found that a novel query widget enabled users to find more useful documents by searching further down on the SERP. It may be that the design of the ubiquitous small, rectangle search box forces users to engage in precision- optimized search behaviors that sabotage their goals in exploratory search tasks. It has also been hypothesized that fast “rapid-fire” querying and shallow examination of SERPs might be

associated with stress (Edwards et al., 2015) and while that premise has not yet been

substantiated, the qualitative findings in this dissertation suggest that when users search and evaluate unfamiliar, complex topics in personal finance, the uncertainty (or perhaps stress) of the whole environment may lead to this kind of excessive querying behavior that is less effective for exploratory tasks that are more cognitively demanding and require more patient searching behavior.

Many participants started out their searches by looking for general information on the tasks topics. If they were uncertain about the product in the task scenario, they searched for product definitions, overviews, and basic information before addressing the issues in the task scenario. They often articulated the desire to avoid advertisements and commercial websites. They looked for websites they perceived to be “neutral” and “unbiased,” which most often meant websites run by the federal government. The implication about this manner in which many participants attributed neutrality and lack of bias to federal government websites is that citizens put high trust in the government to provide them with reliable information about financial topics with which they are unfamiliar.

Another finding that is quite clear is how much participants trust Google. Even though participants were instructed to use any search engine they wished to, no one switched from using

157

Google. Some participants explicitly commented about trusting Google while others implied the trust that the search engine would return best results at the top of the SERP (but under the

advertisements). Even when participants found very relevant information on websites run by the FTC, CFPB, or Department of Education, instead of using the search features on those websites to search for more information, they opted to leave those websites and go back to Google to search. This seems to be partly driven by the desire to find different sources of information from different entities. Participants valued diversifying their information sources, with many talking about the need to view multiple sources before deciding which information was the best or whether they could trust information they found on some of the websites.

Later in the search tasks, participants who previously had avoided lenders and banks on the SERP began to look for information from these kinds of websites. When this happened, the lenders, banks, and credit unions they sought out were ones where they held their own accounts or where family members held accounts.

Another finding was about participants who talked about exploring behaviors. Exploring took place once participants had developed a basic set of knowledge about the topic and included strategies to find out more about the risks of the products, the current offerings available for the products, and searching for ramifications of the products such as not paying off the loans on time. The pattern of developing a knowledge base and then diving into deeper areas of detail about products seems to fit into the framework of searching as learning (Eickhoff, Gwizdka, Hauff, & He, 2017).

In summary, when participants searched on financial topics with which they were less familiar, they stuck to basic strategies and tactics which meant a search that looked something like this: start with Google, avoid ads, define the topic, see what the government says about it,

158

keep using Google to get more information, and once enough learning has taken place, dig deeper in more specific (i.e., commercial) places. Further investigation into this phenomenon could also take into account variables such as topic uncertainty or search uncertainty.

6.2.2. Evaluating information. Participants described basic strategies for evaluating