Searching online is not the problem. Searching well is.
Our CHIIR 2026 demonstration paper “Seek and You Shall Find: Design & Evaluation of a Context-Aware Interactive Search Companion” by Markus Bink, Udo Kruschwitz, and David Elsweiler, in collaboration with Marten Risius (Hochschule Neu-Ulm) presents a context-aware interactive search companion that integrates expert search strategies into search engine result pages.
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🎯 The goal? Foster reflective search behavior without increasing cognitive load.
The search companion provides lightweight, contextual guidance to help users:
- Clarify their information needs
- Improve query formulation
- Explore results more actively
- Mitigate cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias
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📊 What We Found
In our user study, the companion resulted in:
- 75% more queries submitted
- ~2× more search results viewed
- Performance gains in difficult search tasks
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👋 Want to discuss?
If you are interested in search literacy or designing systems that empower users through learning opportunities, let's connect!
🔗 Read our paper here:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11287 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) (pre-print) | https://doi.org/10.1145/3786304.3787914 (externer Link, öffnet neues Fenster) (ACM DL)
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#InformationRetrieval #IR
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#EmpiricalStudy #UserStudy
#PhDResearch #SearchResearch #UXResearch
#ACM #SIGIR #ConferenceOnHumanInformationInteractionAndRetrieval #CHIIR #CHIIR2026
#ResearchSuccess #ResearchPaperAccepted
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