Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers
We adapt previous literature on search tasks for developing a domain-specific search engine that supports the search tasks of policy workers. To characterise the search tasks we conducted two rounds of interviews with policy workers at the municipality of Utrecht, and found that they face different...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Information |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/14/7/371 |
| _version_ | 1797588911637135360 |
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| author | Thomas Schoegje Arjen de Vries Lynda Hardman Toine Pieters |
| author_facet | Thomas Schoegje Arjen de Vries Lynda Hardman Toine Pieters |
| author_sort | Thomas Schoegje |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We adapt previous literature on search tasks for developing a domain-specific search engine that supports the search tasks of policy workers. To characterise the search tasks we conducted two rounds of interviews with policy workers at the municipality of Utrecht, and found that they face different challenges depending on the complexity of the task. During simple tasks, policy workers face information overload and time pressures, especially during web-based searches. For complex tasks, users prefer finding domain experts within their organisation to obtain the necessary information, which requires a different type of search functionality. To support simple tasks, we developed a web search engine that indexes web pages from authoritative sources only. We tested the hypothesis that users prefer expert search over web search for complex tasks and found that supporting complex tasks requires integrating functionality that enables finding internal experts within the broader web search engine. We constructed representative tasks to evaluate the proposed system’s effectiveness and efficiency, and found that it improved user performance. The search functionality developed could be standardised for use by policy workers in different municipalities within the Netherlands. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:59:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7c1d25391df040868b2e3e36e83edde5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2078-2489 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:59:45Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Information |
| spelling | doaj.art-7c1d25391df040868b2e3e36e83edde52023-11-18T19:46:40ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892023-06-0114737110.3390/info14070371Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy WorkersThomas Schoegje0Arjen de Vries1Lynda Hardman2Toine Pieters3Information and Computer Science, Utrecht University, 3584 CE Utrecht, The NetherlandsInstitute for Computing and Information Sciences, Radboud University, 6525 EC Nijmegen, The NetherlandsInformation and Computer Science, Utrecht University, 3584 CE Utrecht, The NetherlandsFreudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, 3584 CC Utrecht, The NetherlandsWe adapt previous literature on search tasks for developing a domain-specific search engine that supports the search tasks of policy workers. To characterise the search tasks we conducted two rounds of interviews with policy workers at the municipality of Utrecht, and found that they face different challenges depending on the complexity of the task. During simple tasks, policy workers face information overload and time pressures, especially during web-based searches. For complex tasks, users prefer finding domain experts within their organisation to obtain the necessary information, which requires a different type of search functionality. To support simple tasks, we developed a web search engine that indexes web pages from authoritative sources only. We tested the hypothesis that users prefer expert search over web search for complex tasks and found that supporting complex tasks requires integrating functionality that enables finding internal experts within the broader web search engine. We constructed representative tasks to evaluate the proposed system’s effectiveness and efficiency, and found that it improved user performance. The search functionality developed could be standardised for use by policy workers in different municipalities within the Netherlands.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/14/7/371web-based searchsearch taskspolicy workersmunicipalityprofessional searche-government |
| spellingShingle | Thomas Schoegje Arjen de Vries Lynda Hardman Toine Pieters Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers Information web-based search search tasks policy workers municipality professional search e-government |
| title | Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers |
| title_full | Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers |
| title_fullStr | Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers |
| title_short | Improving the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Web-Based Search Tasks for Policy Workers |
| title_sort | improving the effectiveness and efficiency of web based search tasks for policy workers |
| topic | web-based search search tasks policy workers municipality professional search e-government |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/14/7/371 |
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