There are limited studies that are addressing the challenges of visually impaired (VI) users when viewing search results on a search engine interface by using a screen reader. This study investigates the effect of providing an overview of search results to VI users. We present a novel interactive search engine interface called InteractSE to support VI users during the results exploration stage in order to improve their interactive experience and web search efficiency. An overview of the search results is generated using an unsupervised machine learning approach to present the discovered concepts via a formal concept analysis that is domain-independent. These concepts are arranged in a multi-level tree following a hierarchical order and covering all retrieved documents that share maximal features. The InteractSE interface was evaluated by 16 legally blind users and compared with the Google search engine interface for complex search tasks. The evaluation results were obtained based on both quantitative (as task completion time) and qualitative (as participants’ feedback) measures. These results are promising and indicate that InteractSE enhances the search efficiency and consequently advances user experience. Our observations and analysis of the user interactions and feedback yielded design suggestions to support VI users when exploring and interacting with search results.

当使用屏幕阅读器在搜索引擎界面上查看搜索结果时，针对视觉障碍（VI）用户的挑战的研究有限。本研究调查了向VI用户提供搜索结果概述的效果。我们提供了一个称为InteractSE的新颖的交互式搜索引擎界面，以在结果探索阶段为VI用户提供支持，以改善他们的交互式体验和网络搜索效率。使用无监督的机器学习方法生成搜索结果的概述，以通过与领域无关的正式概念分析来介绍发现的概念。这些概念按照层次结构顺序排列在多级树中，并覆盖所有共享最大功能的检索文档。InteractSE界面经过16位合法盲人用户的评估，并与Google搜索引擎界面进行了比较，以处理复杂的搜索任务。基于定量（作为任务完成时间）和定性（作为参与者的反馈）措施获得评估结果。这些结果令人鼓舞，表明InteractSE可以提高搜索效率，从而改善用户体验。我们对用户交互和反馈的观察和分析得出了一些设计建议，以在浏览和与搜索结果交互时为VI用户提供支持。这些结果令人鼓舞，表明InteractSE可以提高搜索效率，从而改善用户体验。我们对用户交互和反馈的观察和分析得出了一些设计建议，以在浏览和与搜索结果交互时为VI用户提供支持。这些结果令人鼓舞，表明InteractSE可以提高搜索效率，从而改善用户体验。我们对用户交互和反馈的观察和分析得出了一些设计建议，以在浏览和与搜索结果交互时为VI用户提供支持。