Perceptions of the effect of fragmented attention on mobile web search tasks

Mobile devices are rapidly becoming our main method of accessing the Internet and are frequently used to perform on-the-go search tasks. The use of such devices in situations where attention must be divided, such as when walking, are common and research suggests that this increases cognitive load and, therefore, may have an impact on performance. In this work we conducted a laboratory experiment with both phone and tablet devices with the aim of evaluating common mobile situations that cause fragmented attention, impact search performance and impact on user perception. To do this the distraction level was varied by simulating 3 everyday situations: 1) walking quickly (on a treadmill), 2) navigating a pre-defined route and 3) sitting still which was used as the baseline condition). The results showed that different experimental conditions had a number of different effects on the participants' perceptions of their own search performance, how hurried they felt and how engaged they were in the tasks.