Prerna Juneja
Seattle University, Seattle, Washington, United States
There is a growing demand for transparency in search engines to understand how search results are curated and to enhance users' trust. Prior research has introduced search result explanations with a focus on "how" to explain, assuming explanations are beneficial. Our study takes a step back to examine "if" search explanations are needed and "when" they are likely to provide benefits. Additionally, we summarize key characteristics of helpful explanations and share users' perspectives on explanation features provided by Google and Bing. Interviews with non-technical individuals reveal that users do not always seek or understand search explanations and mostly desire them for complex and critical tasks. They find Google's search explanations too obvious but appreciate the ability to contest search results. Based on our findings, we offer design recommendations for search engines and explanations to help users better evaluate search results and enhance their search experience.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642059
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (https://chi2024.acm.org/)