GUIDAETA -- A Versatile Interactions Dataset with extensive Context Information and Metadata

TL;DR

GUIDAETA is a large, versatile dataset of guided user interactions with extensive context and metadata, supporting diverse research in human-computer interaction, cognitive science, and related fields.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive, large-scale interaction dataset with rich context and metadata, filling a gap in publicly available data for various research applications.

Findings

Largest dataset of its kind with over 250 users and 716 tasks

Includes detailed context, widget info, and user metadata

Enables diverse research in HCI, cognitive science, and security

Abstract

Interaction data is widely used in multiple domains such as cognitive science, visualization, human computer interaction, and cybersecurity, among others. Applications range from cognitive analyses over user/behavior modeling, adaptation, recommendations, to (user/bot) identification/verification. That is, research on these applications - in particular those relying on learned models - require copious amounts of structured data for both training and evaluation. Different application domains thereby impose different requirements. I.e., for some purposes it is vital that the data is based on a guided interaction process, meaning that monitored subjects pursued a given task, while other purposes require additional context information, such as widget interactions or metadata. Unfortunately, the amount of publicly available datasets is small and their respective applicability for specific purposes limited. We present GUIDEd Interaction DATA (GUIDAETA) - a new dataset, collected from a large-scale guided user study with more than 250 users, each working on three pre-defined information retrieval tasks using a custom-built consumer information system. Besides being larger than most comparable datasets - with 716 completed tasks, 2.39 million mouse and keyboard events (2.35 million and 40 thousand, respectively) and a total observation period of almost 50 hours - its interactions exhibit encompassing context information in the form of widget information, triggered (system) events and associated displayed content. Combined with extensive metadata such as sociodemographic user data and answers to explicit feedback questionnaires (regarding perceived usability, experienced cognitive load, pre-knowledge on the information system's topic), GUIDAETA constitutes a versatile dataset, applicable for various research domains and purposes.