Visualizing query occurrence in search result lists

The result lists of popular Web search engines represent retrieved documents with only a title, a brief textual summary and a URL. We present a novel approach that incorporates visualization into the conventional search result interface. For each resulting document, occurrences of the entire query are concisely depicted in the form of a small, document-shaped icon. An 18-participant user study was carried out to compare our design with the traditional search result list in terms of accuracy and task performance. Though statistically significant differences in performance were not observed, the participants´ subjective ratings and opinions of the visualization´s utility were positive. Despite the fact that the visualization introduces a new and somewhat complicated variable to consider when evaluating search result lists, the participants´ performance did not fall below their performance level with the traditional interface. Our findings indicate the need to study such interfaces in a longitudinal setting.