a description of a style of exploratory search behavior that we probably do not model effectively yet.

1. Casual Leisure Searching
The Exploratory Search scenarios that
break our current models
Max L. Wilson
David Elsweiler
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

2. To come...
• brief overview of 2 recent studies
• what doesn’t fit into our Exploratory Search models
•a definition of casual-leisure search we are working on
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

3. Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

4. Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

5. A Overview (81)
A1 Channel Hopping 4
A2 Programme List 5
A3 A list of programmes, restricted
by specified criteria
“All the films on at 8:15pm”
“A list of society critical films sorted by topic” 72
B Looking for Information (71)
B.1 “Programme-related
“Length of current programme”
“Name of actor in film I am watching” 39
B.2 Non-programme-related
“News or current affairs”
“Weather in Lund, Sweden” 32
C Looking for something to watch (195)
C.1 Specific Programme known
F igu re 2: T he A ffin i t y D iagr a m m i ng P rocess “The Simpsons” 77
C.2 By genre/type
Documentary/knowledge programme/sophisticated level
Entertaining/relaxing/distracting/thrilling
Funny programme
Music programme
Sport related 111
C.3 Film 7
D High-level needs 6
• “to be entertained”
• “to kill time”
E Other television functions and nonsense 25
• “play Wii”
• “record a film”
F Not enough information to classify 2
F igu re 4: T he C o d i ng Sche m e D e velop ed for
F igu re 3: T he C a t egor isi ng a n d N a m i ng P h ase
R ecor ded N eeds
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

6. A Overview (81)
A1 Channel Hopping 4
A2 Programme List 5
A3 A list of programmes, restricted
by specified criteria
“All the films on at 8:15pm”
“A list of society critical films sorted by topic” 72
B Looking for Information (71)
B.1 “Programme-related
“Length of current programme”
“Name of actor in film I am watching” 39
B.2 Non-programme-related
“News or current affairs”
“Weather in Lund, Sweden” 32
C Looking for something to watch (195)
C.1 Specific Programme known
F igu re 2: T he A ffin i t y D iagr a m m i ng P rocess “The Simpsons” 77
C.2 By genre/type
Documentary/knowledge programme/sophisticated level
Entertaining/relaxing/distracting/thrilling
Funny programme
Music programme
Sport related 111
C.3 Film 7
D High-level needs 6
• “to be entertained”
• “to kill time”
E Other television functions and nonsense 25
• “play Wii”
• “record a film”
F Not enough information to classify 2
F igu re 4: T he C o d i ng Sche m e D e velop ed for
F igu re 3: T he C a t egor isi ng a n d N a m i ng P h ase
R ecor ded N eeds
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

7. Entertaining/relaxing/distracting/thrilling
Funny programme
Music programme
Sport related 111
C.3 Film 7
D High-level needs 6
• “to be entertained”
• “to kill time”
E Other television functions and nonsense 25
Need:
• “play Wii” want an] entertaining programme, something funny,
[I
east • “record tofilm”
a distract me
Reason: Stressful day!
has Need: [I want] something interesting, distracting, informative,
F Not enough information a travel report or history programme
cultured such as to classify 2
hted Reason: I need to iron and at the same time i like to watch tv -
are it takes my mind off the chore
low, Figure 4: Stressful day!
Reason: The Coding Scheme Developed for
tud- Need:
Recorded Needs [I’m looking for] short entertainment during dinner
Reason: [I have a] little time to waste
arch Need: Channel hopping
tu- Reason: I’m bored
the results) and some of these criteria were quite unusual
ich and would be very difficult to achieve with existing systems,
BE- for example those shownentries where the information
for Table 2: Example
in Table 1.
gin need is secondary to the experience of searching.
ng a
thMax L. Wilson Need: [I would like] a list of society critical films, ordered by csmax@swan.ac.uk

8. Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

9. Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

10. behaviours documented so far. B elow
4.1 Need-less browsing discovere
as casual
are we covering these?
M uch like the desire to pass time at the television, we saw
many examples (some shown in Table 3) of people passing
time typically associated with the ‘browsing’ keyword. 5. CA
We ha
haviours
1) ... I’m not even *doing* anything useful... just browsing
eBay aimlessly...
factors th
2) to do list today: browse the Internet until fasting break of Inform
t, and future curtailtime..
exploration when it is not appropriate. Search, a
3) ... just got done eating dinner and my family is watch-
ter each hour, it is not s
h time. Our 4.2
4)
Exploring for the experience
ing the football. Rather browse on the laptop
I’m at the dolphin mall. Just browsing. breaks th
of thousands Mostly related to the exploration of a novel physical space, amples w
mation needs, we saw many people exploring with family and friends. The
Table 3: Example tweets where the browsing activ- differenti
aim is need-less.
ity in these situations (see Table 5) is often not to find for search
scribed in the specific places, but to spend time with family. typically
ive, inductive Fromexploring the neighbourhood with mythat often the inform-
1) the collected tweets it is clear baby! search is
ory approach. ation-need in beautiful day to be outside playing and explor- typi-
2) What a these situations are not only fuzzy, but We prese
hing scenarios cally absent. Tthe kids:)appears to be focused on the activity,
ing with
he aim tasks:
tweets in ap- 3) Into the nineties and exploring dubstep [music] while
where the measure of success would be in how much they
we have begun handling lots of small to-dos
• In C
enjoyed the process, or how long they managed to spend
, ourselves, a seco
Table 5: time’. If we model these the experience out-
‘wasting Example tweets where situations by how they
s that people
weighs themake sense of the domain, or how they progress
manage to things found. • T he
mains.
ithin our tax- in defining their information-need, then we are likely to pro- pen
set and have vide these cases, the of support be to investigate or not want
In the wrong types goal may e.g these users may learn
• C as
about supported in defining what they the activity to find on csmax@swan.ac.uk
onomyWilson
Max L. in fu- to be the place, but the the focus of are trying is less

11. Back to Exploratory Search
•Unfamiliar Domain
•Unfamiliar Systems
•Unfamiliar information need
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

12. Back to Exploratory Search
TV
example
•Unfamiliar Domain
•Unfamiliar Systems
•Unfamiliar information need
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

13. Back to Exploratory Search
TV
example
•Unfamiliar Domain X
•Unfamiliar Systems
•Unfamiliar information need
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

14. Back to Exploratory Search
TV
example
•Unfamiliar Domain X
•Unfamiliar Systems X
•Unfamiliar information need
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

15. Back to Exploratory Search
TV
example
•Unfamiliar Domain X
•Unfamiliar Systems X
•Unfamiliar information need X
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

16. Back to Exploratory Search
TV eBay
example example
•Unfamiliar Domain X
•Unfamiliar Systems X
•Unfamiliar information need X
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

17. Back to Exploratory Search
TV eBay
example example
•Unfamiliar Domain X X
•Unfamiliar Systems X
•Unfamiliar information need X
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

18. Back to Exploratory Search
TV eBay
example example
•Unfamiliar Domain X X
•Unfamiliar Systems X X
•Unfamiliar information need X
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

19. Back to Exploratory Search
TV eBay
example example
•Unfamiliar Domain X X
•Unfamiliar Systems X X
•Unfamiliar information need X X
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

20. Casual-Leisure Search
(Definition v0.1)
• the information found is secondary to the experience
• success != finding something
• usually - the motivators are hedonistic
• an information need is often absent
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

21. Is this important?
• They are often lengthy, aimless, and very exploratory
• Technology is increasingly pervasive - casual-leisure
search is on the increase
• These searches are often linked to health and well-being
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

22. Is it important?
• It impacts the way we might evaluate exploratory search
• It impacts the way we might measure success
• We will struggle to design good exploratory
systems if we focus on building knowledge and forget these
casual search scenarios
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk

23. Questions
Max L. Wilson csmax@swan.ac.uk