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

Exploring Large Digital Library Collections Using a Map-Based Visualisation

In this paper we describe a novel approach for exploring large document collections using a map-based visualisation. We use hierarchically structured semantic concepts that are attached to the documents to create a visualisation of the semantic space that resembles a Google Map. The approach is novel in that we exploit the hierarchical structure to enable the approach to scale to large document collections and to create a map where the higher levels of spatial abstraction have semantic meaning. An informal evaluation is carried out to gather subjective feedback from users. Overall results are positive with users finding the visualisation enticing and easy to use

The PATHS System for Exploring Digital Cultural Heritage

Over the past years large digital cultural heritage collections have become available, however access paradigms have not kept pace with this development and are still primarily constructed around simple keyword search. This works well for users familiar with the collections, but for new users who are unfamiliar with the collection they present a significant hurdle. The PATHS (Personalised Access To cultural Heritage Spaces) project addresses these issues by providing a novel framework for exploring large digital cultural heritage collections, built around the metaphor of a path through the collection. In this paper we present the initial user requirements analysis that was used to determine what a path is in the cultural heritage domain. From this we developed a conceptual model of path interaction, which was turned into a system design and implementation. Finally we present the evaluation of the resulting system and draw a number of conclusions as to what systems supporting exploration in digital cultural heritage collections must support to enable the users to satisfy their information needs

Multi-Modal Perception for Selective Rendering

A major challenge in generating high-fidelity virtual environments (VEs) is to be able to provide realism at interactive rates. The high-fidelity simulation of light and sound is still unachievable in real-time as such physical accuracy is very computationally demanding. Only recently has visual perception been used in high-fidelity rendering to improve performance by a series of novel exploitations; to render parts of the scene that are not currently being attended to by the viewer at a much lower quality without the difference being perceived. This paper investigates the effect spatialised directional sound has on the visual attention of a user towards rendered images. These perceptual artefacts are utilised in selective rendering pipelines via the use of multi-modal maps. The multi-modal maps are tested through psychophysical experiments to examine their applicability to selective rendering algorithms, with a series of fixed cost rendering functions, and are found to perform significantly better than only using image saliency maps that are naively applied to multi-modal virtual environments

Visual articulation of navigation and search systems for digital libraries

Journal and digital library portals are the information systems that researchers turn to most frequently for undertaking and disseminating their academic work. However, their interfaces have not been improved. We propose an articulation of the navigation and search systems in a single visual solution that would allow the simultaneous exploration and interrogation of the information system. Area is a low-cost visualization tool that is easy to implement, and which can be used with large collections of documents. Moreover, it has a short learning curve that enhances both user-experience and user-satisfaction with journal and digital library websites

VisIRR: Interactive Visual Information Retrieval and Recommendation for Large-scale Document Data

Research areas: Machine learning, Data mining, Information visualization, Visual analytics, Text visualization.We present a visual analytics system called VisIRR, which is an interactive visual information retrieval and recommendation system for document discovery. VisIRR effectively combines both paradigms of passive pull through a query processes for retrieval and active push that recommends the items of potential interest based on the user preferences. Equipped with efficient dynamic query interfaces for a large corpus of document data, VisIRR visualizes the retrieved documents in a scatter plot form with their overall topic clusters. At the same time, based on interactive personalized preference feedback on documents, VisIRR provides recommended documents reaching out to the entire corpus beyond the retrieved sets. Such recommended documents are represented in the same scatter space of the retrieved documents so that users can perform integrated analyses of both retrieved and recommended documents seamlessly. We describe the state-of-the-art computational methods that make these integrated and informative representations as well as real time interaction possible. We illustrate the way the system works by using detailed usage scenarios. In addition, we present a preliminary user study that evaluates the effectiveness of the system

Designing a geographic visual information system (GVIS) to support participation in urban planning

The growth of the international movement to involve the public in urban planning urges us to find new ways to achieve this. Recent studies have identified information communication technologies (ICT) as a mechanism to support such movement. It has been postulated that integrating geographic information system (GIS), virtual reality (VR) and Internet technologies will facilitate greater participation in planning activity and therefore strengthen and democratise the process. This is a growing area of research. There is, however, concern that a lack of a theoretical basis for these studies might undermine their success and hamper the widespread adoption of GIS-VR combination (GVIS). This thesis presents a theoretical framework based on the Learning System Theory (LST). ICT technologies are then assessed according to the framework. In the light of the assessmenta, prototype has been designed and developed based on a local urban regeneration project in Salford, UK. The prototype is then evaluated through two phases, namely formative evaluation and summative evaluation, to test the feasibility of the framework. The formative evaluation was focused on evaluating the functionality of the prototype system. In this case, evaluators were experts in IT or urban planning. The summative evaluation focused on testing the value of the prototype for different stakeholder groups of the urban regeneration project from local residents to planning officers. The findings from this research indicated that better visualization could help people in understanding planning issues and communicate their visions to others. The interactivity functions could further support interaction among users and the analysis of information. Moreover, the results indicated that the learning system theory could be used as a framework in looking at how GVIS could be developed in order to support public participation in urban planning.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo