This thesis addresses how dyslexia affects information search, a topic which has received little attention in previous research. A total of 42 students (21 dyslexics and 21 controls) completed three experiments; one visual search experiment and two information retrieval experiments in the Web search engine Google and the academic library catalogue Bibsys Ask. Eye tracking and screen recording documented the searching. The main finding regarding query formulation was that dyslexia had a negative effect on search performance in systems with a low tolerance for errors. However, in the search system with a high tolerance for errors, this negative effect was removed. It was also investigated whether dual-modality interfaces with icons and words may support dyslexics during result list assessment. The conclusion was that when dual modalities are presented in a list layout, distanced to make icons and words not concurrently appearing in the central visual field, graphic content may seem helpful and also seems to counteract the negative impact of dyslexia. The overall conclusion to this study was that well-designed search user interfaces may counteract the impact of dyslexia.
展开▼
