Supporting Metacognition during Exploratory Search with the OrgBox

Current search systems provide effective support to users engaged in fact-finding and look-up oriented tasks. However, they provide relatively little support for users engaged in exploratory search tasks that involve cognitive and metacognitive activities such as learning, synthesis, planning, and reflection. We conducted a within-subject user study (N=24) that investigated the effects of a novel knowledge organization tool called the OrgBox, designed to assist users with organizing and synthesizing information, and metacognitive activities. The OrgBox included features to allow users to drag-drop information they found through search into "boxes" that could be created, labelled, and re-arranged. Study participants completed two exploratory search tasks, one with the OrgBox, and one with the OrgDoc, a baseline tool that included features of a rich-text editor (e.g., formatting, bullets) for taking notes.