Hi all,
Not sure if this is the correct place to post this question but here goes:
I want to find out which search engines are most effective for users in terms of usability, and quality of results.
I am going to be using eye-tracking tools to monitor users when they are using search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and a meta-search engine (maybe Dogpile.com).
Do you have any suggestions on how I could formulate tests? I am thinking about creating a set of tasks asking a user to go on search engines and find a relevant website through searches that best match the answer they have in front of them. (I.e. If I want a user to find typical strength of Paracetamol, who can take it, side effects etc that is on a paper - against - what they find on the net, that backs up the accurate information). A test like this would combine the quality of results given, against time take for a user to find the answer from results.
Any help on formulating tests for different types of search engines? Crawlers, Directories etc?
If anyone can help it would be great.