The usefulness of dynamically categorizing search results.

OBJECTIVE: The authors' goal was to determine whether dynamic categorization, a new technique for organizing search results, is more useful than the two existing organizational techniques: relevance ranking and clustering. They define a useful tool as one that helps users learn about the kinds of information that pertain to their query, find answers to their questions efficiently and easily, and feel satisfied with their search experience.
DESIGN: Fifteen patients with breast cancer and their family members completed query-related tasks using all three tools. The authors measured the time it took the subjects to accomplish their tasks, the number of answers to the query that the subjects found in four minutes, and the number of new answers that they could recall at the end of the study. Subjects also completed a user-satisfaction questionnaire.
RESULTS: The results showed that patients with breast cancer and their family members could find significantly (P: < 0.05) more answers in a fixed amount of time and were significantly (P: < 0.05) more satisfied with their search experience when they used the dynamic categorization tool than when they used either the cluster tool or the ranking tool. Subjects indicated that the dynamic categorization tool provided an organization of search results that was more clear, easy to use, accurate, precise, and helpful than those of the other tools.
CONCLUSION: The experiments indicate that dynamic categorization is an effective and useful approach for organizing search results. Tools that use this technique will help patients and their families gain quick and easy access to important medical information.