An Eye-Tracking Study Of User Behavior In Web Image Search

Studies of Web search have mostly examined user behavior in text search. Recent studies begin to explore user's Web image search behavior through survey, questionnaire, interview, etc. This study investigates user behavior on a Web image search engine using eye-tracking. The goal is to get insight into how users view search results and whether search task type and results presentation order influence their behavior. We found that search results at certain locations, e.g., the top-center area in a grid layout, were more attractive than others. The search task type significantly influenced user behavior while the results presentation order didn't. In addition, we looked at the question of why a particular search result was selected, which showed variety of reasons. User behavior researchers and search engine developers can take advantage of these findings in order to create better search experiences to the users.