Finding a product online can be a challenging task for users. Faceted search interfaces, often in combination with recommenders, can support users in finding a product that fits their preferences. However, those preferences are not always equally weighted: some might be more important to a user than others (e.g. red is the favorite color, but blue is also fine) and sometimes preferences are even contradictory (e.g. the lowest price vs. the highest performance). Often, there is even no product that meets all preferences. In those cases, faceted search interfaces reach their limits. In our research, we investigate the potential of a search interface, which allows a preference-based ranking based on weighted search and facet terms. We performed a user study with 24 participants and measured user satisfaction and system performance. The results show that with the preference-based search interface the users were given more alternatives that best meet their preferences and that they are more satisfied with the selected product than with a search interface using standard facets. Furthermore, in this work we study the relationship between user satisfaction and search precision within the whole search session and found first indications that there might be a relation between them.

翻译：为用户在线寻找产品可能是一项具有挑战性的任务。分面搜索界面（常与推荐系统结合使用）能够帮助用户找到符合其偏好的产品。然而，这些偏好的权重并不总是等同的：有些偏好可能对用户而言比其它偏好更重要（例如，红色是最喜欢的颜色，但蓝色也可以接受），有时偏好甚至相互矛盾（例如，最低价格与最高性能对立）。此外，往往甚至不存在满足所有偏好的产品。在这些情况下，分面搜索界面便达到了其功能的极限。在本研究中，我们探索了一种基于加权搜索词与分面条件实现偏好排序的搜索界面潜力。我们开展了一项包含24名参与者的用户实验，测量了用户满意度与系统性能。结果表明，与使用标准分面的搜索界面相比，基于偏好的搜索界面能为用户提供更符合其偏好的备选方案，且用户对所选产品的满意度更高。此外，本研究深入分析了整个搜索会话中用户满意度与搜索精度的关系，并初步发现了二者可能存在的关联性。