OrgBox: Supporting Cognitive and Metacognitive Activities During Exploratory Search

We describe a search-assistance tool called the OrgBox, created to support users' organizational, cognitive, and metacognitive activities while performing exploratory search tasks. The OrgBox tool allows users to create and label "boxes" to organize information found during a search. The OrgBox was integrated with a custom built search system that allowed users to save, organize, and synthesize information using drag-and-drop actions. The OrgBox tool also encourages users to engage in metacognitive activities during their search process (e.g., planning their next steps, monitoring their progress, evaluating the information found so far). In this paper, we describe the features and implementation of the OrgBox tool. We also summarize result of two user studies conducted using the OrgBox that show its cognitive and metacognitive benefits to users.