Print Email Facebook Twitter Comparing User Approach to Complex Information Needs in Traditional Web Search and Conversational Search Title Comparing User Approach to Complex Information Needs in Traditional Web Search and Conversational Search Author Leibbrandt, Louise (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science) Contributor Hauff, C. (mentor) Degree granting institution Delft University of Technology Programme Computer Science and Engineering Project CSE3000 Research Project Date 2020-06-22 Abstract Conversational search systems have recently gained popularity due to their effectiveness in performing small tasks and answering factoid questions. However, under complex search scenarios, these systems fail and fall back to techniques used by traditional search engines. As tasks requiring user learning are inherently complex, user knowledge is a powerful indicator of system performance under complex search and user ability to successfully interact with the information content. We present a study in which user knowledge gain and query formulation is explored in both the traditional web search and conversational search formats. Through crowd sourcing, 50 participants were recruited and conducted complex search sessions on either the traditional or conversational search medium. Through the use of a knowledge test given to the participant both before and after the search session, knowledge gain was determined. Furthermore, session queries and timestamps were tracked. It is found that participants have a significantly higher knowledge gain in traditional search, while conversational search sessions tended to have a higher number of queries and average query length. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:48573917-4096-4485-8838-836ad351d49f Part of collection Student theses Document type bachelor thesis Rights © 2020 Louise Leibbrandt Files PDF Complex_Conversational_Search.pdf 1.45 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:48573917-4096-4485-8838-836ad351d49f/datastream/OBJ/view