The Impact of Form Controls and User Characteristics on the Information Experience of Database Users

The information retrieval experience has a significant impact on the use of university library database resources. In order to improve the efficiency of users' information retrieval in the database, a controlled experimental method is adopted to explore the effects of form controls and user types on the performance, cognitive load, and satisfaction of university library digital resource information retrieval tasks, and provide design optimization suggestions. The study found that form controls have a significant impact on cognitive load, task performance, and subjective evaluation, and there is an interactive effect between user characteristics and form controls on cognitive load and task performance. Novice users have the highest retrieval efficiency when using drop-down list boxes, and experienced users are more suitable for using combo boxes.