ImageSieve: Exploratory search of museum archives with named entity-based faceted browsing

Over the last few years, faceted search emerged as an attractive alternative to the traditional "text box" search and has become one of the standard ways of interaction on many e-commerce sites. However, these applications of faceted search are limited to domains where the objects of interests have already been classified along several independent dimensions, such as price, year, or brand. While automatic approaches to generate faceted search interfaces were proposed, it is not yet clear to what extent the automatically-produced interfaces will be useful to real users, and whether their quality can match or surpass their manually-produced predecessors. The goal of this paper is to introduce an exploratory search interface called ImageSieve, which shares many features with traditional faceted browsing, but can function without the use of traditional faceted metadata. ImageSieve uses automatically extracted and classified named entities, which play important roles in many domains (such as news collections, image archives, etc.). We describe one specific application of ImageSieve for image search. Here, named entities extracted from the descriptions of the retrieved images are used to organize a faceted browsing interface, which then helps users to make sense of and further explore the retrieved images. The results of a user study of ImageSieve demonstrate that a faceted search system based on named entities can help users explore large collections and find relevant information more effectively

Impresso Inspect and Compare. Visual Comparison of Semantically Enriched Historical Newspaper Articles

The automated enrichment of mass-digitised document collections using techniques such as text mining is becoming increasingly popular. Enriched collections offer new opportunities for interface design to allow data-driven and visualisation-based search, exploration and interpretation. Most such interfaces integrate close and distant reading and represent semantic, spatial, social or temporal relations, but often lack contrastive views. Inspect and Compare (I\&C) contributes to the current state of the art in interface design for historical newspapers with highly versatile side-by-side comparisons of query results and curated article sets based on metadata and semantic enrichments. I\&C takes search queries and pre-curated article sets as inputs and allows comparisons based on the distributions of newspaper titles, publication dates and automatically generated enrichments, such as language, article types, topics and named entities. Contrastive views of such data reveal patterns, help humanities scholars to improve search strategies and to facilitate a critical assessment of the overall data quality. I\&C is part of the impresso interface for the exploration of digitised and semantically enriched historical newspapers

Metadata visualization of scholarly search results

Studies of online search behaviour have found that searchers often face difficulties formulating queries and exploring the search results sets. These shortcomings may be especially problematic in digital libraries since library searchers employ a wide variety of information-seeking methods (with varying degrees of support), and the corpus to be searched is often more complex than simple textual information. To address these problems, an interactive Web-based library search interface is presented, which has been designed to support strategic retrieval behaviour of library searchers. This system takes advantage of the rich metadata associated with academic documents and employs information visualization techniques to provide searchers with additional information-seeking tools. These tools are designed to facilitate visual and interactive query refinement, search results exploration, and citation navigation. User evaluations illustrate the potential benefits of the design choices in comparison to a list-based digital library search interface

What Presentation of Search Engine Results Do Health Information Searchers Prefer?

A study of a sample of online health information searchers was conducted to see what their preferences are with respect to four different display styles for search engine results on health topics. Screen shots of search result display screens were presented to the participants via a Qualtrics (www.qualtrics.com) online survey. The other display types were Display 1: Google standard display, Display 2: Google enhanced with faceted browsable categories, Display 3: Google enhanced with a word cloud for each search result, and Display 4: Google enhanced with an overview word cloud for collection of search results. For each search task, participants were asked to rate the search engine results displays for quality indicators, using Likert-type item rating scales. At the end, in three concluding questions, the participants were asked to choose the display(s) that were best at meeting three specific criteria, based on overall impressions. The evaluations by the participants suggest that the standard Google search results display and the Google screen enhanced with faceted browsable categories were favored over the other two display types.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Design and Evaluation of User Interfaces for Mobile Web Search

Mobiili tiedonhaku on jatkuvasti kasvava ja monimuotoistuva osa jokapäiväistä tiedonhankintaa. Aikaisemman tutkimuksen mukaan tarvitaan kuitenkin parempia käyttöliittymäratkaisuja tukemaan mobiililaitteilla tapahtuvaa verkkotiedonhakua. Väitöskirjatutkimuksessa suunniteltiin ja toteutettiin kaksi uutta hakukäyttöliittymää, joita arvioitiin käyttäjätutkimuksissa. Ensimmäinen käyttöliittymä perustuu siihen, että hakutulokset luokitellaan ryhmiin niissä esiintyvien avainsanojen perusteella. Käyttäjätutkimusten tulokset osoittavat, että luokittelulla voidaan tukea mobiilikäyttäjien tutkivaa tiedonhakua. Toinen käyttöliittymä antaa hakutulosten yhteydessä yleiskuvan hakulauseen sijaintikohdista tulosdokumenteissa. Vaikkakin menetelmän käyttö vaatii opettelua, käyttäjäarviot osoittavat että se voi auttaa sivuuttamaan huonot hakutulokset, etenkin silloin kun muut hakutulosta kuvaavat tiedot ovat epäselviä. Lisäksi väitöskirjassa tutkittiin aktiivisten mobiili-Internetin käyttäjien tiedontarpeita verkkotiedonhaun käytön ymmärtämiseksi. Tutkimustulosten mukaan hakujen tekeminen ja verkon selaaminen ovat näiden käyttäjien tärkeimpiä tiedonhankintatapoja. Niillä pyritään vastaamaan tiedontarpeisiin heti niiden ilmaantuessa, olipa käyttäjä sitten kotona, liikkeessä tai sosiaalisessa vuorovaikutustilanteessa. Mobiili tiedonhankinta on vahvasti sidoksissa käyttötilanteeseen, mikä tulee huomioida hakukäyttöliittymien suunnittelussa. Tulevaisuuden hakukäyttöliittymät voivat esimerkiksi tukea tiedonhankintaa hyödyntämällä tietoa käyttäjän sijainnista ja aktiviteeteista. Myös epämuodollisten ja tutkivien tiedontarpeiden kasvava rooli asettaa uusia haasteita vuorovaikutuksen suunnittelulle.Mobile Web search is a rapidly growing information seeking activity employed across different locations, situations, and activities. Current mobile search interfaces are based on the ranked result list, dominant in desktop interfaces. Research suggests that new paradigms are needed for better support of mobile searchers. For this dissertation, two such novel search interface techniques were designed, implemented, and evaluated. The first method, a clustering search interface that presents a category- based overview of the results, was studied both in a task-based experiment in a laboratory setting and in a longitudinal field study wherein it was used to address real information needs. The results indicate that clustering can support exploratory search needs when the searcher has trouble defining the information need, requires an overview of the search topic, or is interested in multiple results related to the same topic. The findings informed design guidelines for category-based search interfaces. How and when categorization is presented in the search interface needs to be carefully considered. Categorization methods should be improved, for better response to diverse information needs. Hybrid approaches employing contextually informed clustering, classification, and faceted browsing may offer the best match for user needs. The second presentation method, a visualization of the occurrences of the user s query phrase in a result document, can be incorporated into the ranked result list as an additional, unobtrusive result descriptor. It allows the searcher to see how often the query phrase appears in the result document, enabling the use of various evaluation strategies to assess the relevance of the results. Several iterations of the visualization were studied with users to form an understanding of the potential of this approach. The results suggest that a novel visualization can be useful in ruling out non-relevant results and can assist when the other result descriptors do not provide for a conclusive relevance assessment. However, users familiarity with well-established result descriptors means that users have to learn how to integrate the visualization into their search strategies and reconcile situations in which the visualization is in conflict with other metadata. In addition, the contextual triggers and information behaviors of mobile Internet users were studied, for understanding of the role of Web search as a mobile information seeking activity. The results from this study show that mobile Web search and browsing are important information seeking activities. They are engaged in to resolve emerging information needs as they appear, whether at home, on the go, or in social situations

Just-in-time Information Interfaces: A new Paradigm for Information Discovery and Exploration

We live in a time of increasing information overload. Described as “a byproduct of the lack of maturity of the information age” (Spira & Goldes, 2007), information overload can be painful, and harm our concentration - the resulting choice overload impacts out decision-making abilities. Given the problem of information overload, and the unsatisfying nature of human-information interaction using traditional browsing or keyword-based search, this research investigates how the design of just-in-time information services can improve the user experience of goal-driven interactions with information. This thesis explores the design of just-in-time information services through the iterative development of two strands of high-level prototypes (FMI and KnowDis). I custombuilt both prototype systems for the respective evaluations, which have then been conducted as part of a series of lab-based eye-tracking studies (FMI) as well as two field studies (KnowDis). The lab-based eye-tracking studies were conducted with 100 participants measuring task performance, user satisfaction, and gaze behaviour. The lab studies found that the FMI prototype design did improve the performance aspect of the user experience for all participants and improved the usability aspect of the user experience for novice participants. However, the FMI prototype design seemed to be less effective and usable for expert participants. Two field studies were conducted as part of a two-year research collaboration, which lasted a total of 10 weeks and involved approximately 70 knowledge workers overall from across the globe. As part of those field studies, 46 semi-structured interviews were also conducted. The field studies found that the KnowDis prototype design did improve the user experience for participants overall by making work-related information search more efficient. However, while the KnowDis prototype design was useful for some knowledge workers and even integrated seamlessly into their day-to-day work, it appeared to be less useful and even distracting to others

Visualisation des résultats de recherche classifiés en contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire : une évaluation d’utilisabilité

La recherche d’information exploratoire sur le Web présente des défis cognitifs en termes de stratégies cognitives et de tactiques de recherche. Le modèle « question-réponse » des moteurs de recherche actuels est inadéquat pour faciliter les stratégies de recherche d’information exploratoire, assimilables aux stratégies cognitives de l’apprentissage. La visualisation des résultats de recherche est un dispositif qui possède des propriétés graphiques et interactives pertinentes pour le traitement de l’information et l’utilisation de la mémoire et, plus largement de la cognition humaine. Plusieurs recherches ont été menées dans ce contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire, mais aucune n’a distinctement isolé le facteur graphique et interactif de la « visualisation » au sein de son évaluation. L’objectif principal de cette thèse est de vérifier si la visualisation des résultats en contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire témoigne des avantages cognitifs et interactifs pressentis selon ses présupposés théoriques. Pour décrire et déterminer la valeur ajoutée de la visualisation des résultats de recherche dans un contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire sur le Web, cette recherche propose de mesurer son utilisabilité. En la comparant selon les mêmes critères et indicateurs à une interface homologue textuelle, nous postulons que l’interface visuelle atteindra une efficacité, efficience et satisfaction supérieure à l’interface textuelle, dans un contexte de recherche d’information exploratoire. Les mesures objectives de l’efficacité et de l’efficience reposent principalement sur l’analyse des traces de l’interaction des utilisateurs, leur nombre et leur durée. Les mesures subjectives attestant de la satisfaction procurée par l’usage du système dans ce contexte repose sur la perception des utilisateurs par rapport à des critères de perception de la facilité d’utilisation et de l’utilité de l’interface testée et par rapport à des questions plus large sur l’expérience de recherche vécue. Un questionnaire et un entretien ont été passés auprès de chacun des vingt-trois répondants. Leur session de recherche a aussi été enregistré par un logiciel de capture vidéo d’écran. Sur les données des vingt-trois utilisateurs divisés en deux groupes, l’analyse statistique a révélé de faibles différences significatives entre les deux interfaces. Selon les mesures effectuées, l’interface textuelle s’est révélée plus efficace en terme de rappel et de pertinence ; et plus efficiente pour les durées de la recherche d’information. Sur le plan de la satisfaction, les interfaces ont été appréciées toutes deux posivitivement, ne permettant pas de les distinguer pour la grande majorité des métriques. Par contre, au niveau du comportement interactif, des différences notables ont montré que les utilisateurs de l’interface visuelle ont réalisé davantage d’interactions de type exploratoire, et ont procédé à une collecte sélective des résultats de recherche. L’analyse statistique et de contenu sur le critère de l’expérience vécue a permis de démontrer que la visualisation offre l’occasion à l’utilisateur de s’engager davantage dans le processus de recherche d’information en raison de l’impact positif de l’esthétique de l’interface visuelle. De plus, la fonctionnalité de classification a été perçue de manière ambivalente, divisant les candidats peu importe l’interface testée. Enfin, l’analyse des verbatims des « visuelle » a permis d’identifier le besoin de fonctionnalités de rétroaction de l’utilisateur afin de pouvoir communiquer le besoin d’information ou sa pondération des résultats ou des classes, grâce à des modalités interactives de manipulation directe des classes sur un espace graphique.Conducting exploratory searches on the web presents a number of cognitive difficulties as regards search strategies and tactics. The “question-response” model used by the available search engines does not respond adequately to exploratory searches, which are akin to cognitive learning strategies. Visualising search results involves graphic and interactive properties for presenting information that are pertinent for processing and using information, as well as for remembering and, more broadly, for human cognition. Many studies have been conducted in the area of exploratory searches, but none have focussed specifically on the graphic and interactive features of visualisation in their analysis. The principal objective of this thesis is to confirm whether the visualisation of results in the context of exploratory searches offers the cognitive and interactive advantages predicted by conjectural theory. In order to describe and to determine the added value of visualising search results in the context of exploratory web searches, the study proposes to measure its usability. By comparing it to a parallel text interface, using the same criteria and indicators, the likelihood of better efficiency, efficacy, and satisfaction when using a visual interface can be established. The objective measures of efficiency and efficacy are based mainly on the analysis of user interactions, including the number of these interactions and the time they take. Subjective measures of satisfaction in using the system in this context are based on user perception regarding ease of use and the usefulness of the interface tested, and on broader questions concerning the experience of using the search interface. These data were obtained using a questionnaire and a discussion with each participant. Statistical analysis of the data from twenty-three participants divided into two groups showed slightly significant differences between the two interfaces. Analysis of the metrics used showed that the textual interface is more efficient in terms of recall and pertinence, and more efficacious concerning the time needed to search for information. Regarding user satisfaction, both interfaces were seen positively, so that no differences emerged for the great majority of metrics used. However, as regards interactive behaviour, notable differences emerged. Participants using the visual interface had more exploratory interaction, and went on to select and collect pertinent search results. Statistical and content analysis of the experience itself showed that visualisation invites the user to become more involved in the search process, because of the positive effect of a pleasing visual interface. In addition, the classification function was perceived as ambivalent, dividing the participants no matter which interface was used. Finally, analysis of the verbatim reports of participants classed as “visual” indicated the need for a user feedback mechanism in order to communicate information needs or for weighting results or classes, using the interactive function for manipulating classes within a geographic space

Cognitive Foundations for Visual Analytics

In this report, we provide an overview of scientific/technical literature on information visualization and VA. Topics discussed include an update and overview of the extensive literature search conducted for this study, the nature and purpose of the field, major research thrusts, and scientific foundations. We review methodologies for evaluating and measuring the impact of VA technologies as well as taxonomies that have been proposed for various purposes to support the VA community. A cognitive science perspective underlies each of these discussions