Embedding Search into a Collaborative Conversational Platform

1. Embedding Search into a Conversational Platform to Support Collaborative Search Florian Groß 28. Mai 2019 1

2. Outline • Introduction • Methodology • Results • Discussion Florian Groß 2

3. Introduction • New messaging platforms allow collaboration • work-related/personal tasks • Ability to integrate third-party applications • Interaction directly from communication channel • Search-bots designed to perform specific type of search • Focused on use by individuals to date Florian Groß 3

4. Searchbot in Slack Florian Groß 4

5. What is the problem? • Search bots able to support multiple users working collaboratively on information-seeking tasks • Dedicated Systems most common approach for collaborative search • Search engine as centerpiece • Include peripheral tools to communicate • Found to provide benefits for users • People engaging in collaborative search do so using non-integrated tools Florian Groß 5

6. Related Work • Morris concluded future research should develop “glue systems” that offer integration between existing search and communication tools • Collaborative work introduces several challenges • Imbalanced participation • Pacing issues • Difficulties implementing strategies Florian Groß 6

7. Researchers approach • Integrate search tools into communication platforms • Search bot into Slack • 27 pairs of participants • Two different search bot designs and a baseline design • Browser only condition • Slack only condition • Slack Browser condition Florian Groß 7

8. Research Questions • What is the effect of the searchbot condition on participants … • level of workload during the task? • collaborative experience? • experience while interacting with the bot inside of Slack? • search behaviors during the task? Florian Groß 8

9. Study Protocol • Completing demographic questionnaire • Completed three search tasks • Each associated with a different searchbot condition • Same protocol for each search task • Participants got explanation together • Executed task in different rooms • 15 minutes per task • Post task questions after each search task Florian Groß 9

10. Search Task • Three comparative search tasks • Choose three items to consider • Compare items along three dimensions • Make final item selection • Given just dimensions • Each task include background story and objective statement Florian Groß 10

11. Browser only condition • Participants used out-of-channel search tools • Simulate own independent systems to search • Use the messaging platform to coordinate and share findings Florian Groß 11

12. Slack only condition • Only issue queries inside of slack • Submit query to bot with “@bot” • Bot able to automatically respond to queries • Search results embedded directly into Slack • Top three results • “click here for more” hyperlink • Pop-up browser window with 10 additional results • No search bar inpop-up Florian Groß 12

13. Slack Browser Condition • Issue queries inside and outside of Slack • First query needs to be issued in Slack • Like in slack only condition • Pop-up results page contains search bar • For individual search Florian Groß 13

14. Post Task Questionnairs • Questionnaire about aspects of workload • Questionnaire about three aspects of collaborative experience • Awareness of each others activities • Collaborative effort • Collaborative enjoyment • Questionnaire about experience interacting with the bot • Gains obtained from searchbot • Ease of coordinating the use of searchbot Florian Groß 14

15. Search behavior • Query intent overlap measure • Degree of overlap between search intent of both participants • Repeated intent measure • Degree to which query got re-issued as another query by same participant Florian Groß 15

16. Results • What is the effect of the searchbot condition on participants level of workload during the task? • Greater effort with the searchbot • Maybe due to novelty of using the bot Florian Groß 16

17. Results • What is the effect of the searchbot condition on participants collaborative experience? • Greater awareness of partners activities with bot • Greater confidence partner is aware of own activity with bot • Greater ease in sharing information with partner using bot • Same benefits as standalone collaborative search systems Florian Groß 17

18. Results • What is the effect of the searchbot condition on participants experience while interacting with the bot inside of Slack? • Participants being more distracted by partners interaction with searchbot during periods of individual work (Maybe source of effort) Florian Groß 18

19. Results • What is the effect of the searchbot condition on participants search behaviors during the task? • Participants search intents had less overlap when using the bot • Participants issued fewer queries, abandoned fewer queries and fewer query-reformulations in slack only condition • Greater levels of query-refinement might have led to better search results and less effort Florian Groß 19

20. Limitations and Future Work • Participants were students of their institute •  Maybe aware of problems of collaboration •  No good generalization • Participants forced to share same querying environment • Less query refinement • Sub-optimal search results? • Not mentioned how pairs where chosen • Future workshould build on this design and identify sources of effort that can bealleviated. Florian Groß 20

21. Discussion Florian Groß 21

22. Backup • (*,*), (1,*), (*,1), (2,2) • Tothis end, • we used the two-dimensional coding scheme described above. Our • repeated intent (RI) measure considers the percentage of a participant’s • queries that had the same item-dimension codes as another • query from the same participant. • Value between 0 and 1 Florian Groß 22