The Value of Multistage Search Systems for Book Search

Often, our exploratory quests for books are highly complex endeavors which feature activities such as exploration, searching, selecting and comparing various books. Current systems for book search may not provide optimal support for this wide range of activities. The interactive Social Book Search Track investigates how users utilize different access interfaces in the context of two types of tasks, and evaluates a streamlined baseline interface and a rich multistage interface, potentially supporting different stages of search. In this paper, we analyze how these two types of interfaces influence user behavior, in terms of task duration, book selection and interaction patterns. Furthermore, we characterize the use of the different panels of the experimental multistage interface, as well as user engagement. We find initial evidence for the additional value of providing stage-based search support in the context of open-ended and focused book search tasks.