From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

A key to the Web's success is the power of search. The elegant way in which search results are returned is usually remarkably effective. However, for exploratory search in which users need to learn, discover, and understand novel or complex topics, there is substantial room for improvement. Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results. This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney). We also consider the both traditional and novel ways in which these strategies have been evaluated. From our review of cognitive processes, browser design, and evaluations, we reflect on the future opportunities and new paradigms for exploring and interacting with Web search results

MedTextus: An Ontology-enhanced Medical Portal

In this paper we describe MedTextus, an online medical search portal with dynamic search and browse tools. To search for information, MedTextus lets users request synonyms and related terms specifically tailored to their query. A mapping algorithm dynamically builds the query context based on the UMLS ontology and then selects thesaurus terms that fit this context. Users can add these terms to their query and meta-search five medical databases. To facilitate browsing, the search results can be reviewed as a list of documents per database, as a set of folders into which all the documents are automatically categorized based on their content, and as a map that is built on the fly. We designed a user study to compare these dynamic support tools with the static query support of NLM Gateway and report on initial results for the search task. The users used NLM Gateway more effectively, but used MedTextus more efficiently and preferred its query formation tools

An Iterative Approach to Building Sustainable Repository Services on Fedora

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-05-19 10:00 AM – 11:30 AMNorthwestern University Library is engaged in a multiyear project to implement a robust digital repository on Fedora. Building a system that accommodates richly heterogeneous collections, empowers professional staff engaged in a variety of production workflows, and provides access commensurate with the richness materials afford is not achieved all at once. In order to support specific near-term project commitments while building broadly applicable content models and services for the long term, we devised a cyclic three-phase strategy. It is cyclic in that feedback and demand from users will result in revision and expansion of core models, services and associated end-user tools.Institute for Museum and Library Service

A user evaluation of hierarchical phrase browsing

Phrase browsing interfaces based on hierarchies of phrases extracted automatically from document collections offer a useful compromise between automatic full-text searching and manually-created subject indexes. The literature contains descriptions of such systems that many find compelling and persuasive. However, evaluation studies have either been anecdotal, or focused on objective measures of the quality of automatically-extracted index terms, or restricted to questions of computational efficiency and feasibility. This paper reports on an empirical, controlled user study that compares hierarchical phrase browsing with full-text searching over a range of information seeking tasks. Users found the results located via phrase browsing to be relevant and useful but preferred keyword searching for certain types of queries. Users experiences were marred by interface details, including inconsistencies between the phrase browser and the surrounding digital library interface

ThumbReels: query sensitive web video previews based on temporal, crowdsourced, semantic tagging

During online search, the user's expectations often differ from those of the author. This is known as the "intention gap" and is particularly problematic when searching for and discriminating between online video content. An author uses description and meta-data tags to label their content, but often cannot predict alternate interpretations or appropriations of their work. To address this intention gap, we present ThumbReels, a concept for query-sensitive video previews generated from crowdsourced, temporally defined semantic tagging. Further, we supply an open-source tool that supports on-the-fly temporal tagging of videos, whose output can be used for later search queries. A first user study validates the tool and concept. We then present a second study that shows participants found ThumbReels to better represent search terms than contemporary preview techniques

Assessing Visualization Techniques for the Search Process in Digital Libraries

In this paper we present an overview of several visualization techniques to support the search process in Digital Libraries (DLs). The search process typically can be separated into three major phases: query formulation and refinement, browsing through result lists and viewing and interacting with documents and their properties. We discuss a selection of popular visualization techniques that have been developed for the different phases to support the user during the search process. Along prototypes based on the different techniques we show how the approaches have been implemented. Although various visualizations have been developed in prototypical systems very few of these approaches have been adapted into today's DLs. We conclude that this is most likely due to the fact that most systems are not evaluated intensely in real-life scenarios with real information seekers and that results of the interesting visualization techniques are often not comparable. We can say that many of the assessed systems did not properly address the information need of cur-rent users.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, pre-print to appear in "Wissensorganisation mit digitalen Technologien" (deGruyter

Previews and Overviews in Digital Libraries: Designing Surrogates to Support Visual Information-Seeking

To aid designers of digital library interfaces and web sites in creating comprehensible, predictable and controllable environments for their users, we define and discuss the benefits of previews and overviews as visual information representations. Previews and overviews are graphic or textual representations of information abstracted from primary information objects. They serve as surrogates for those objects. When utilized properly, previews and overviews allow users to rapidly discriminate objects of interest from those not of interest, and to more fully understand the scope and nature of large collections of information resources. We provide a more complete definition of previews and overviews, and discuss system parameters and aspects of primary information objects relevant to designing effective preview and overviews. Finally, we present examples that illustrate the use of previews and overviews and offer suggestions for designers