Exploring Online and Offline Search Behavior Based on the Varying Task Complexity

In an information seeking episode, users often look for sources in online and offline environments depending on the task at hand. However, at most times users consider factors such as ease, time taken to complete the task, and the number of sources to be consulted as the essential factors while fulfilling the information seeking task. In our study, we explore the role of different cost variables -- ease, time taken to complete the task, and the number of sources consulted -- as the factors to be explored based on different cognitive task complexity levels, from Bloom»s taxonomy, by conducting a user study. We study the different search behaviors shown by users in online and offline environments based on the different cognitive task complexity levels and the three cost variables. We observed intriguing results that show factors such as ease, time, and the number of sources play a role in source selection while completing the tasks. Our study is a novel proposition in that we explore research in the direction of source selection based on different cognitive task complexity levels. The findings will contribute to shaping how tasks should be designed to use sources in a helpful and convenient manner. Moreover, the results also advance our understanding of the role that different affordances play in online and offline search behavior.

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