Fit Matters: Format-Distance Alignment Improves Conversational Search

TL;DR

Aligning response formats with users' psychological distance in conversational search enhances user experience by reducing risk perceptions and increasing confidence, usefulness, and enjoyment, with multimedia benefits depending on the context.

Contribution

This study introduces format--distance alignment as a new design principle, demonstrating its positive impact on user perceptions and decision-making in conversational search.

Findings

Format--distance alignment reduces risk perceptions.

Concrete formats increase cognitive load but aid near-distance tasks.

Images benefit concrete formats more than abstract ones.

Abstract

Existing conversational search systems can synthesize information into responses, but they lack principled ways to adapt response formats to users' cognitive states. This paper investigates whether aligning format and distance, which involves matching information granularity and media to users' psychological distance, improves user experience. In a between-subjects experiment (N=464) on travel planning, we crossed two distance dimensions (temporal/spatial x near/far) with four formats varying in granularity (abstract/concrete) and media (text/image-and-text). The experiment established that format--distance alignment reduced users' risk perceptions while increasing decision confidence, perceptions of information usefulness, ease of use, enjoyment, and credibility, and adoption intentions. Concrete formats imposed higher cognitive load, but yielded productive effort when matched to near-distance tasks. Images enhanced concrete but not abstract text, suggesting multimedia benefits depend on complementarity. These findings establish format--distance alignment as a distinctive and important design dimension, enabling systems to tailor response formats to users' psychological distance.