How Do the User Experiences of Everyday Content Differ from Those of Academic Content?

Abstract

This study aims to compare the user experiences in a web search context. Within the scope of the study, 15 voluntary students participated in the sessions in a fully equipped human-computer interaction laboratory. Two different tasks were assigned, which varied in the context: everyday vs. academic. There was no time limitation to complete the tasks. All sessions were recorded by Tobii software, which allowed recording eye movements. Collected data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings suggest that searching for everyday content can be less complicated than that for academic content. Participants shared some common beliefs for the everyday content. They trusted a website including real travelers' reviews, and do not need to visit any other website, but for academic task, they first judged the seriousness of the website. They did not prefer to visit blogs, wikis, or news web sites while they were looking for academic information.