User engagement and system support in the search process: User dominated, system dominated and Balanced Search Tactics

Both user engagement and system support play important roles in applying search tactics. To apply search tactics in the information retrieval (IR) processes, users engage intellectually with the system, while the system assists them by providing different system features. By analyzing 63 subjects' information searching diaries and questionnaires, the authors identified various types of user engagement and system support, and classified search tactics into three groups: user dominated, system dominated, and balanced tactics. The authors further explored types of user engagement and types of system support in applying user dominated tactics (e.g. evaluating tactic), system dominated tactics (e.g. accessing tactic) and balanced tactics (e.g. learning tactic). The findings show that users and systems play major roles in applying user dominated and system dominated tactics respectively. While applying balanced tactics, users and systems have to be equally engaged.