The Effects of Task, Task Mapping, and Layout Space on User Performance in Information-Rich Virtual Environments

How should abstract information be displayed in Information-Rich Virtual Environments (IRVEs)? There are a variety of techniques available, and it is important to determine which techniques help foster a user’s understanding both within and between abstract and spatial information types. Our evaluation compared two such techniques: Object Space and Display Space. Users strongly prefer Display Space over Object Space, and those who use Display Space may perform better. Display Space was faster and more accurate than Object Space for tasks comparing abstract information. Object Space was more accurate for comparisons of spatial information. These results suggest that for abstract criteria, visibility is a more important requirement than perceptual coupling by depth and association cues. They also support the value of perceptual coupling for tasks with spatial criteria

Enhancing the Usability of XML keyword Search

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Multiple-view approach for smooth information retrieval

Although various visualization techniques have been proposed for information retrieval tasks, most of them are based on a single strategy for viewing and navigating through the information space, and vague knowledge such as a fragment of the name of the object is not effective for the search. In contrast, people usually look for things using various vague clues simultaneously. For example, in a library, people can not only walk through the shelves to find a book they have in mind, but also they can be reminded of the author’s name by viewing the books on the shelf and check the index cards to get more information. To enable such realistic search strategies, we developed a multiple-view information retrieval syste