Eye Tracking the Use of a Collapsible Facets Panel in a Search Interface (Poster)

Facets can provide an interesting functionality in digital libraries. However, while some research shows facets are important, other research found
facets are only moderately used. Therefore, in this exploratory study we compare two search interfaces; one where the facets panel is always visible and one where the facets panel is hidden by default. Our main research question is “Is folding the facets panel in a digital library search interface beneficial to academic users?” By performing an eye tracking study with N=24, we measured search efficiency, distribution of attention and user satisfaction. We found no significant differences in the eye tracking data nor in usability feedback and
conclude that collapsing facets is neither beneficial nor detrimental.