Drop-Down Democracy: Internet Portal Design Influences Voters' Search Strategies

In this paper the authors report how different interfaces for searching the internet changed the strategies and information opportunities of voters as they searched for political information. A drop-down interface that helped users define specific queries was compared to a traditional typed-query interface. The drop-down interface resulted in a broader set of information opportunities. Voters using the drop-down interface relied less on candidate websites, visited a broader sampling of website types, and examined issues more closely. Portal design heavily influences search strategies and information opportunities.