From SERPs to Agents: A Platform for Comparative Studies of Information Interaction
Fuente:
arXiv
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1866908767091687424 |
|---|---|
| author | Zerhoudi, Saber Granitzer, Michael |
| author_facet | Zerhoudi, Saber Granitzer, Michael |
| contents | The diversification of information access systems, from RAG to autonomous agents, creates a critical need for comparative user studies. However, the technical overhead to deploy and manage these distinct systems is a major barrier. We present UXLab, an open-source system for web-based user studies that addresses this challenge. Its core is a web-based dashboard enabling the complete, no-code configuration of complex experimental designs. Researchers can visually manage the full study, from recruitment to comparing backends like traditional search, vector databases, and LLMs. We demonstrate UXLab's value via a micro case study comparing user behavior with RAG versus an autonomous agent. UXLab allows researchers to focus on experimental design and analysis, supporting future multi-modal interaction research. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_09937 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | From SERPs to Agents: A Platform for Comparative Studies of Information Interaction Zerhoudi, Saber Granitzer, Michael Human-Computer Interaction Information Retrieval The diversification of information access systems, from RAG to autonomous agents, creates a critical need for comparative user studies. However, the technical overhead to deploy and manage these distinct systems is a major barrier. We present UXLab, an open-source system for web-based user studies that addresses this challenge. Its core is a web-based dashboard enabling the complete, no-code configuration of complex experimental designs. Researchers can visually manage the full study, from recruitment to comparing backends like traditional search, vector databases, and LLMs. We demonstrate UXLab's value via a micro case study comparing user behavior with RAG versus an autonomous agent. UXLab allows researchers to focus on experimental design and analysis, supporting future multi-modal interaction research. |
| title | From SERPs to Agents: A Platform for Comparative Studies of Information Interaction |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction Information Retrieval |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.09937 |