How Users Search the Mobile Web: A Model for Understanding the Impact of Motivation and Context on Search Behaviors

Wu, Dan; Zhu, Man; Ran, Aihua

doi:10.20309/jdis.201608

Figures & Tables

The motivation- and context-based mobile search behavior model.

Search motivation and information need type_

Motivation	Correlations (p-value)
Curiosity	0.038 < 0.05
Time killing	0.118
Knowledge	0.020 < 0.05
Life service	0.000 p < 0.01
Social relations	0.358
Social avoidance	0.910
Others	0.354

Matrix of search motivations_

Information	Curiosity	Time killing	Knowledge	Life service	Social relations	Others	Total
Curiosity	79 (17.56%)	38	39	14	3	4	177
Time killing	8.44%	31(6.89%)	22	8	2	5	106
Knowledge	8.67%	4.89%	88(19.56%)	16	1	7	173
Life service	3.11%	1.78%	3.56%	95 (21.11%)	-	6	137
Social relations	0.67%	0.44%	0.22%	-	10(2.22%)	1	17
Others	0.89%	1.11%	1.56%	1.33%	0.22%	19(4.22%)	40
Total	39.33%	23.56%	38.44%	30.44%	3.78%	8.89%	650 (144.00%)

Top two relationships between time and query frequency_

Time	Query frequency (%)
18:00–24:00	44.2
12:00–18:00	40.0

Search motivation and emotion change_

Motivation	Correlations (p-value)
Curiosity	0.444
Time killing	0.071
Knowledge	0.075
Life service	0.121
Social relations	0.538
Social avoidance	0.847
Others	0.000 p < 0.01

Top three relationships between information need and activity_

Activity	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
On break	Culture & art (24.4)	Social science (18.1)	Recreation (8.1)
Working	Culture & art (40.0)	Social science (30.0)	Education (15.0)
Studying	Culture & art (23.1)	Natural science (15.7)	Social science (13.9)
Shopping	Recreation (57.1)	News & event (14.3)	Social science (14.3)
Traveling	Recreation (28.6)	Culture & art (21.4)	Social science (14.3)
Others	Culture & art (22.6)	Social science (16.1)	Natural science (12.9)

Personal attributes and social environment_

Context		Personal attributes (p-value)				Social environment (p-value)
Context
		Gender	Age	Grade	Major	Activity	Relations	Importance	Portal
Personal	Gender	-	-	-	-	0.000 p < 0.01	0.138	0.116	P
attributes	Age	-	-	-	-	0.357	0.231	0.573	0.717
	Grade	-	-	-	-	0.399	0.786	0.396	0.202
	Major	-	-	-	-	0.610	0.577	0.150	0.598
Social	Activity	0.000 p < 0.01	0.357	0.399	0.610	-	0.000 p < 0.01	0.000 p < 0.01	-
environment	Relations	0.138	0.231	0.786	0.577	0.000 p < 0.01	-	0.633	0.171
	Importance	0.116	0.573	0.396	0.150	0.000 p < 0.01	0.633	-	0.573
	Portal	P	0.717	0.202	0.598	-	0.171	0.573	-

Place and relations_

Place	Relations (p-value)
At home or dormitory	0.001 p < 0.01
In workplace	0.000 p < 0.01
In study place	0.000 p < 0.01
In public	0.037 < 0.05
On the way	0.001 p < 0.01
On vacation	0.000 p < 0.01

Physical environment and social environment_

Context		Physical environment (p-value)				Soial environment (p-value)
Context
		Time	Place	Weather	Device	Activity	Relations	Importance	Portal
Physical	Time	-	-	0.736	-	0.593	0.586	0.206	-
environment	Place	-	-	0.415	0.866	0.000 p < 0.01	A	-	-
	Weather	0.736	0.415	-	0.593	0.559	0.374	0.412	-
	Device	-	0.866	0.593	-	0.137	0.037	0.061	0.186
Social	Activity	0.593	0.000**	0.559	0.137	-	0.000 p < 0.01	0.000 p < 0.01	-
environment	Relations	0.586	A	0.374	0.347	0.000 p < 0.01	-	0.633	0.171
	Importance	0.206	-	0.412	0.631	0.000 p < 0.01	0.633	-	0.573
	Portal	-	-	-	0.186	-	0.171	0.573	-

Top three relationships between information need and gender_

Gender	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Man	Culture & art (23.0)	Social science (14.1)	Natural science (14.1)
Woman	Culture & art (24.8)	Social science (18.7)	Recreation (10.2)

Relationships between gender and activity_

		Activity

		Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Gender	Man	On break (55.6)	Studying (37.0)	Others (4.4)
	Woman	On break (61.9)	Studying (18.4)	Others (7.9)

Information need and search portal_

Search portal	Correlations (p-value)
Browser	0.000 p < 0.01
Video software	0.007 p < 0.01
Music software	0.000^{p < 0.01}
Transportation software	0.000^{p < 0.01}
Social software	0.000^{p < 0.01}
Shopping software	0.000^{p < 0.01}
Application store	0.000^{p < 0.01}
Education software	0.023 < 0.05

Emotion change and search portal_

Search portal	Correlations (p-value)
Browser	0.032 < 0.05
Video software	0.198
Music software	0.321
Transportation software	0.740
Social software	0.021 < 0.05
Shopping software	0.586
Application store	0.390
Education software	0.052

Dimensions of participants’ mobile search context_

Category	Dimension	Definition
Personal attributes of the	Gender	Sex (male or female)
participant	Age	Participant age
	Grade	Freshman, sophomore, junior or senior
	Major	Academic field
Physical environment of the	Time	Year-month-day-hour-minute-second
participant	Place	Indoor or outdoor; specific location
	Weather	Summer, rainy or sunny
	Device	Phone type and screen size
Social environment of the	Activity	Event involved while searching: resting, working,
participant		studying, shopping, traveling, etc.
	Relations	Accompanied or alone
	Importance	Whether the search task is urgent
	Portal	Application used

Personal attributes and physical environment_

Context		Personal attributes (p-value)				Physical environment (p-value)

		Gender	Age	Grade	Major	Time	Place	Weather	Device
Personal	Gender	-	-	-	-	0.673	P	-	-
attributes	Age	-	-	-	-	0.347	0.748	-	-
	Grade	-	-	-	-	0.284	0.345	-	-
	Major	-	-	-	-	0.529	0.653	-	-
Physcial	Time	0.673	0.347	0.284	0.529	-	0.354	0.736	-
environment	Place	P	0.748	0.345	0.653	0.354	-	0.415	0.866
	Weather	-	-	-	-	0.736	0.415	-	0.593
	Device	-	-	-	-	-	0.866	0.593	-

Gender and search place_

	At home or dormitory (p-value)	In workplace (p-value)	In study place (p-value)	In public (p-value)	On the way (p-value	On vacation (p-value)
Gender	0.967	0.912	0.000 p < 0.01.	0.006 p < 0.01.	0.008 p < 0.01.	0.017 < 0.05

Relationships between emotion change and task importance_

Task importance	Better (%)	Worse (%)	Neither (%)
Important	45.6	17.5	36.8
Neutral	33.8	7.8	58.3
Unimportant	20.5	5.3	74.2

Categories of information need types_

Category	Examples
Natural science	Chemistry, physics, astronomy
Social science	Economics, history, celebrities
Culture & art	Museum, exhibition, performing arts, photography
City & architecture	Chicago, Wuhan, Roman catholic cathedral
Education	School, courses, studying abroad
Computer skills	Software and hardware, operating skills
News & events	Social news, political news, gossips
Medical treatment & health	Hospitals, diseases, medicare
Recreation	Music and videos, restaurants, accommodation
Transportation	Roadmap, train and airplane routes
Social networking	QQ, WeChat, discuz!, net community
Daily shopping	Clothing, books, food, electronics
Others	Religions, weather, sports

Search query and context_

Category	Mobile search context dimensions	Correlations (p-value)
Personal attributes	Gender	0.351
of the participant	Age	0.271
	Grade	0.577
	Major	0.326
Physical environment	Time	0.000**
around the participant	Place	0.000**
	Weather	0.699
	Device	0.154
Social environment	Activity	0.190
around the participant	Relations	0.280
	Importance	0.214
	Portal	0.881

Top three relationships between search motivation and information need type_

Motivation	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Curiosity	Culture & art (31.1)	Social science (22.2)	Recreation (6.7)
Knowledge	Culture & art (22.4)	Social science (16.1)	Computer skills (12.6)
Life service	Culture & art (18.0)	Recreation (15.6)	Daily shopping (12.5)

Top three relationships between information need and importance_

Task importance	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Important	Social science (24.7)	Culture & art (16.7)	Recreation (11.4)
Neutral	Culture & art (27.5)	Social science (10.8)	Natural science (10.3)
Unimportant	Social science (28.0)	Culture & art (25.8)	City & architecture (8.0)

Top two relationships between place and query frequency_

Place	Query frequency (%)
Home or dormitory	54.7
Study place	28.7

Information need and mobile search context_

Category	Mobile search context dimensions	Correlations (p-value)
Personal attributes of the	Gender	0.000 p < 0.01
participant	Age	0.325
	Grade	0.139
	Major	0.314
Physical environment of the	Time	0.232
participant	Place	-
	Weather	0.412
	Device	0.253
Social environment of the	Activity	0.002^{p < 0.01}
participant	Relations	0.577
	Importance	0.032^*
	Portal	A

Relationships between gender and search place_

	In study place (%)	In public (%)	On the way (%)	On vacation (%)
Man	43.7	3.0	4.4	0
Woman	22.2	10.8	12.7	4.1

Relationships between place and relations_

	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
At home or dormitory	Alone (50.4)	With classmates (23.2)	With friends (19.5)
In workplace	Alone (43.8)	With friends (31.3)	With workmates (12.5)
In study place	Alone (47.3)	With classmates (38.0)	With friends (10.9)
In public	With friends (42.1)	Alone (26.3)	With classmates (23.7)
On the way	Alone (60.9)	With friends (32.6)	With strangers (7.7)
On vacation	With friends (92.3)	Alone (7.7)	-

Query in different motivations_

Motivation	RT≤2(%)	RT>2 (%)	Total (%)
Curiosity	39 (14.83%)	9 (3.42%)	48 (18.25%)
Life service	70 (26.62%)	40 (15.21%)	110 (41.83%)
Time killing	26 (9.89%)	19 (7.22%)	45 (17.11%)
Knowledge	40 (15.21%)	17 (6.46%)	57 (21.67%)
Others	3 (1.14%)	-	3 (1.14%)
Total	178 (67.68%)	85 (32.32%)	263 (100%)

Top three relationships between search portal and information need types_

Search portal	Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Browser	Culture & art (23.6)	Social science (18.4)	Natural science (9.2)
Video software	Culture & art (63.2)	Recreation (10.5)	Social science (5.3)
Music software	Culture & art (100)	-	-
Transportation software	Transportation (47.6)	Recreation (33.3)	Others (14.3)
Social software	Social science (45.9)	Social networking (16.2)	Culture & art (13.5)
Shopping software	Daily shopping (57.1)	Recreation (35.7)	Social networking (3.6)
Application store	Computer skills (80.0)	Recreation (20.0)	-
Education software	Culture & art (66.7)	Natural science (25.0)	Others (8.3)

Gender and search portal_

Search portal	Gender (p-value)
Browser	0.001 p < 0.01
Video software	0.239
Music software	0.627
Transportation software	0.036 < 0.05
Social software	0.000 p < 0.01
Shopping software	0.021 < 0.05
Application store	0.624
Education software	0.798

Relationships between activity and task importance_

	Important (%)	Unimportant (%)	Neutral (%)
On break	15.9	38.1	45.9
Working	45.0	10.0	45.0
Studying	40.7	11.1	48.1
Shopping	28.6	0	71.4
Traveling	50.0	21.4	28.6
Others	29.0	38.7	32.3

Relationships between gender and emotion change_

Gender	Better (%)	Worse (%)	Neither (%)
Man	42.2	10.4	47.4
Woman	28.9	9.2	61.9

Relationships between activity and relations_

	Alone (%)	With others (%)
On break	49.3	_-
Working	55.0	-
Studying	50.0	-
Shopping	-	42.9
Traveling	-	85.7
Others	-	38.7

Relationships between emotion change and search portal_

Search portal	Better (%)	Worse (%)	Neither (%)
Browser	35.0	11.0	54.0
Social software	13.5	8.1	78.4

Motivations and query frequency_

Motivation	Query frequency (%)
Curiosity	180 (40.00%)
Time killing	94 (20.89%)
Knowledge	143 (31.78%)
Life service	128 (28.44%)
Social relations	20 (4.45%)
Others	33 (7.33%)

Emotion change and context_

Category	Mobile search context dimensions	Correlations (p-value)
Personal attributes	Gender	0.013*
of the participant	Age	0.342
	Grade	0.451
	Major	0.182
Physical environment	Time	0.147
of the participant	Place	-
	Weather	0.723
	Device	0.247
Social environment	Activity	0.108
of the participant	Relations	0.230
	Importance	0.000^**
	Portal	P

Relationships between place and activity_

		Activity

		Top 1 (%)	Top 2 (%)	Top 3 (%)
Place	At home or dormitory	On break (80.5)	Studying (13.4)	Working (3.7)
	In workplace	Working (50.0)	On break (31.3)	Studying (12.5)
	In study place	Studying (58.9)	On break (34.1)	Others (4.7)
	In public	On break (44.7)	Others (28.9)	Shopping (10.5)
	On the way	On break (50.0)	Traveling (23.9)	Others (23.9)
	On vacation	Traveling (84.6)	On break (15.4)	-

How Users Search the Mobile Web: A Model for Understanding the Impact of Motivation and Context on Search Behaviors

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Search motivation and information need type_

Matrix of search motivations_

Top two relationships between time and query frequency_

Search motivation and emotion change_

Top three relationships between information need and activity_

Personal attributes and social environment_

Place and relations_

Physical environment and social environment_

Top three relationships between information need and gender_

Relationships between gender and activity_

Information need and search portal_

Emotion change and search portal_

Dimensions of participants’ mobile search context_

Personal attributes and physical environment_

Gender and search place_

Relationships between emotion change and task importance_

Categories of information need types_

Search query and context_

Top three relationships between search motivation and information need type_

Top three relationships between information need and importance_

Top two relationships between place and query frequency_

Information need and mobile search context_

Relationships between gender and search place_

Relationships between place and relations_

Query in different motivations_

Top three relationships between search portal and information need types_

Gender and search portal_

Relationships between activity and task importance_

Relationships between gender and emotion change_

Relationships between activity and relations_

Relationships between emotion change and search portal_

Motivations and query frequency_

Emotion change and context_

Relationships between place and activity_

Paradigm

My account