CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

SUPPORT EFFECTIVE DISCOVERY MANAGEMENT IN VISUAL ANALYTICS

Visual analytics promises to supply analysts with the means necessary to ana- lyze complex datasets and make effective decisions in a timely manner. Although significant progress has been made towards effective data exploration in existing vi- sual analytics systems, few of them provide systematic solutions for managing the vast amounts of discoveries generated in data exploration processes. Analysts have to use off line tools to manually annotate, browse, retrieve, organize, and connect their discoveries. In addition, they have no convenient access to the important discoveries captured by collaborators. As a consequence, the lack of effective discovery manage- ment approaches severely hinders the analysts from utilizing the discoveries to make effective decisions. In response to this challenge, this dissertation aims to support effective discov- ery management in visual analytics. It contributes a general discovery manage- ment framework which achieves its effectiveness surrounding the concept of patterns, namely the results of users’ low-level analytic tasks. Patterns permit construction of discoveries together with users’ mental models and evaluation. Different from the mental models, the categories of patterns that can be discovered from data are pre- dictable and application-independent. In addition, the same set of information is often used to annotate patterns in the same category. Therefore, visual analytics sys- tems can semi-automatically annotate patterns in a formalized format by predicting what should be recorded for patterns in popular categories. Using the formalized an- notations, the framework also enhances the automation and efficiency of a variety of discovery management activities such as discovery browsing, retrieval, organization, association, and sharing. The framework seamlessly integrates them with the visual interactive explorations to support effective decision making. Guided by the discovery management framework, our second contribution lies in proposing a variety of novel discovery management techniques for facilitating the discovery management activities. The proposed techniques and framework are im- plemented in a prototype system, ManyInsights, to facilitate discovery management in multidimensional data exploration. To evaluate the prototype system, two long- term case studies are presented. They investigated how the discovery management techniques worked together to benefit exploratory data analysis and collaborative analysis. The studies allowed us to understand the advantages, the limitations, and design implications of ManyInsights and its underlying framework

MACE – Enriching Architectural Learning Objects for Experience Multiplication.

Stefaner, M., Dalla Vecchia, E., Condotta, M., Wolpers, M., Specht, M., Apelt, M., Duval, E. (2007) MACE – Enriching Architectural Learning Objects for Experience Multiplication. In: Duval, E., Klamma, R., & Wolpers, M. (eds.) EC-TEL 2007. LNCS 4753; Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; pp. 322-336.Education in architecture requires access to a broad range of architectural learning material to develop flexibility and creativity in design. The learning material is compromised of digital information captured in textual and visual media including single images, videos, description of architectural concepts or complete architectural projects, i.e. digital artifacts on different aggregation levels. The repositories storing such information are not interrelated and do not provide unified access so that retrieval of architectural learning objects is cumbersome and time consuming. In this paper, we describe how an infrastructure of federated architectural learning repositories will provide unique, integrated access facilities for high quality architectural content. The integration of various types of content, usage, social and contextual metadata enables users to develop multiple perspectives and navigation paths that support experience multiplication for the user. A service– oriented software architecture that is based on open standards, and a flexible user interface design solutions based on widgets ensure easy integration and re- combinability of contents, metadata and functionalities

A Usability Approach to Improving the User Experience in Web Directories

Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Queen Mary, University of Londo

A usability approach to improving the user experience in web directories

PhDWeb directories are hierarchically organised website collections that offer users subjectbased access to the Web. They played a significant part in navigating the Web in the past but their role has been weakened in recent years due to their cumbersome expanding collections. This thesis presents a unified framework combining the advantages of personalisation and redefined directory search for improving the usability of Web directories. The thesis begins with an examination of classification schemes that identifies the rigidity of hierarchical classifications and their suitability for Web directories in contrast to faceted classifications. This leads on to an Ontological Sketch Modelling (OSM) case study which identifies the misfits affecting user navigation in Web directories from known rigidity issues. The thesis continues with a review of personalisation techniques and a discussion of the user search model of Web directories following the suggested directions of improvement from the case study. A proposed user-centred framework to improve the usability of Web directories which consists of an individual content-based personalisation model and a redefined search model is then implemented as D-Persona and D-Search respectively. The remainder of the thesis is concerned with a usability test of D-Persona and D-Search aimed at discovering the efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction of the solution. This involves an experimental design, test results and discussions for the comparative user study. This thesis extracts a formal definition of the rigidity of hierarchies from their characteristics and justifies why hierarchies are still better suited than facets in organising Web directories. Second, it identifies misfits causing poor usability in Web directories based on the discovered rigidity of hierarchies. Third, it proposes a solution to tackle the misfits and improve the usability of Web directories which has been experimentally proved to be successful

A study on academic search engines: comparison between dynamic queries and regular faceted search

Dynamic queries interfaces provide a powerful and fun way to search information. Using this technique with a faceted navigation can be very effective for academic researchers who are often engaged in exploratory searches. Facets can play an important role in helping the user understand an information space better. Dynamic queries techniques make the search results immediate and the interaction uninterrupted and focused. They can contribute to the user\u27s understanding of the researched topic(s). Furthermore, they are more playful because users directly manipulate controls and the results are displayed through transition animations, which bring the process closer to a game experience (e.g., moving a slider that rearranges the available products). The study compares for the first time (to the researcher\u27s knowledge) regular faceted search to dynamic queries specifically for academic content. Two academic search engines were developed and compared: a regular faceted interface and a dynamic queries interface. Several strengths and weaknesses were identified in both systems. The dynamic queries prototype has the potential to deliver a greater experience with the appropriate back-end technology and design considerations discussed in this thesis