A Mixed-Method Analysis of Text and Audio Search Interfaces with Varying Task Complexity

Voice-based assistants have become a popular tool for conducting web search, particularly for factoid question answering. However, for more complex web searches, their functionality remains limited, as does our understanding of the ways in which users can best interact with audio-based search results. In this paper, we compare and contrast user behaviour through the representation of search results over two mediums: text and audio. We begin by conducting a crowdsourced study exposing the differences in user selection of search results when those are presented in text and audio formats. We further confirm these differences and investigate the reasons behind them through a mixed-methods laboratory study. Through a qualitative analysis of the collected data, we produce a list of guidelines for an audio-based presentation of search results.