Fit Matters: Format-Distance Alignment Improves Conversational Search

Fuente: arXiv

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Yang, Yitian, Tan, Yugin, King, Jung-Tai, Lin, Yang Chen, Lee, Yi-Chieh
Format:	Preprint
Published:	2026
Subjects:	Human-Computer Interaction H.5.2; H.3.3
Online Access:	Acceder al recurso
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_version_	1866912834583003136
author	Yang, Yitian Tan, Yugin King, Jung-Tai Lin, Yang Chen Lee, Yi-Chieh
author_facet	Yang, Yitian Tan, Yugin King, Jung-Tai Lin, Yang Chen Lee, Yi-Chieh
contents	Existing conversational search systems can synthesize information into responses, but they lack principled ways to adapt response formats to users' cognitive states. This paper investigates whether aligning format and distance, which involves matching information granularity and media to users' psychological distance, improves user experience. In a between-subjects experiment (N=464) on travel planning, we crossed two distance dimensions (temporal/spatial x near/far) with four formats varying in granularity (abstract/concrete) and media (text/image-and-text). The experiment established that format--distance alignment reduced users' risk perceptions while increasing decision confidence, perceptions of information usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, and credibility, and adoption intentions. Concrete formats imposed higher cognitive load, but yielded productive effort when matched to near-distance tasks. Images enhanced concrete but not abstract text, suggesting multimedia benefits depend on complementarity. These findings establish format--distance alignment as a distinctive and important design dimension, enabling systems to tailor response formats to users' psychological distance.
format	Preprint
id	arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_13778
institution	arXiv
publishDate	2026
record_format	arxiv
spellingShingle	Fit Matters: Format-Distance Alignment Improves Conversational Search Yang, Yitian Tan, Yugin King, Jung-Tai Lin, Yang Chen Lee, Yi-Chieh Human-Computer Interaction H.5.2; H.3.3 Existing conversational search systems can synthesize information into responses, but they lack principled ways to adapt response formats to users' cognitive states. This paper investigates whether aligning format and distance, which involves matching information granularity and media to users' psychological distance, improves user experience. In a between-subjects experiment (N=464) on travel planning, we crossed two distance dimensions (temporal/spatial x near/far) with four formats varying in granularity (abstract/concrete) and media (text/image-and-text). The experiment established that format--distance alignment reduced users' risk perceptions while increasing decision confidence, perceptions of information usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, and credibility, and adoption intentions. Concrete formats imposed higher cognitive load, but yielded productive effort when matched to near-distance tasks. Images enhanced concrete but not abstract text, suggesting multimedia benefits depend on complementarity. These findings establish format--distance alignment as a distinctive and important design dimension, enabling systems to tailor response formats to users' psychological distance.
title	Fit Matters: Format-Distance Alignment Improves Conversational Search
topic	Human-Computer Interaction H.5.2; H.3.3
url	https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.13778