We investigated the use of free-text queries as an alternative means for searching 'behind' web forms. We conducted a user study where we evaluated our prototype free-text interface in a travel planner scenario. Our results show that users prefer this free-text interface over the original web form and that they are about 9% faster on average at completing their search tasks.
['Kien Tjin-Kam-Jet', 'Dolf Trieschnigg', 'Djoerd Hiemstra']
Free-text search versus complex web forms