mSpace Mobile Interaction presents a UI gestalt of 7 techniques for mobile/on-the-move information retrieval and assessment that enables multiple views of the information within a persistent focus+context viewer. It uses the web but breaks the web page paradigm to support effective rapid triage

Russell, Alistair

schraefel, m.c.

Smith, Daniel A.

Wilson, Max L.

English

Southampton (e-Prints Soton)

 mSpace Mobile: a UI Gestalt to Support On-the-Go Info-Interaction  Abstract mSpace  Mobile  Interaction  presents  a  UI  gestalt  of  7 techniques  for  mobile/on-the-move  information retrieval and assessment that enables multiple views of the  information  within  a  persistent  focus+context viewer.  It  uses  the  web  but  breaks  the  web  page paradigm to support effective rapid triage.  Keywords Mobile interfaces, mobile and pervasive computing. ACM Classification Keywords H.5.2 User Interfaces, Graphical user interfaces. Introduction Our  work  addresses  a  problem  that  is  particularly galling in mobile UIs: multiple searches are required to support a single compound query.  Current technology based on keyword search insists on single queries at a time: someone wishing to know if there’s a Japanese restaurant near a theater showing a film they wish to see  which  is  within  walking  distance  of  their  current location  would  need  to  perform  several  queries  AND jump  back  and  forth  between  list  of  locations  and descriptions  of locales AND then  find a place to write down any information they wish to keep for reference. Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). CHI 2006, April 22–27, 2006, Montreal, Canada. ACM 1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. m.c. schraefel IAM Research Group School of Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ mc+inter@ecs.soton.ac.uk  Max Wilson IAM Research Group School of Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ mw1@ecs.soton.ac.uk  Alistair Russell IAM Research Group School of Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ ar5@ecs.soton.ac.uk       Daniel A. Smith IAM Research Group School of Electronics and Computer Science University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ das05r@ecs.soton.ac.uk     2        A                 B                    C Figure 1:  The mSpace Mobile interface: A – Recommendations are visible for the entities in each column. Blue shows selected entities. The information pane shows details about the selection, and the Interest pane shows items that have previously been identified for later perusal. B – The map view, showing the location of the two selected entities, is expanded. C – The map pane fully expanded. The user determines degree of context visible, but context is persistently recoverable. The  mSpace  Mobile  interface  allows  concurrent visualization  of  these  kinds  of  queries,  while  also presenting options for selection, and information about any  object  of  current  interest,  while  enabling  a  quick gesture  to  add  a  chosen  item  to  a  list  for  future reference. It is also possible to see ratings by friends or trusted  peers  of  any  items  in  view.  With  GPS  ghost, there  are  also  reminders  available  about  places  one may have visited previously. The persistent, concurrent availability  of  relevant  related  information  reduces cognitive  load  and  memory  overload  by  enabling recognition rather than recall: The 7 Technique Gestalt of mSpace Mobile The heart of mSpace Mobile interaction is the mSpace interaction  model  [4]  for  exploratory  search  with facetted browsing [2]: this model imagines information as a high dimensional space. High dimensional spaces are hard to visualize, so mSpace imagines a projection onto the space, flattening it to create a series of slices on  the  space.  These  slices  create,  effectively,  a temporary hierarchy of the subset of dimensions in the domain.  The  dimensional  slice  is  represented  as  a multi-column viewer, where selections of the elements (or facets) in the left column act as filters on elements in  the  right  column.  As  mSpace  Mobile  is  location sensitive,  a  map  is  used  for  the  preview  cue mechanism. The mSpace Mobile interface version of the mSpace interaction model is designed to support users of small screen devices carry out three main activities: (1)  the  querying  of  large  information  spaces  through direct manipulation; (2) the rapid assessment of those spaces  for  information  of  value;  and  (3)  the  ready capture  of  information  for  later  assessment.  Cathy Marshall  calls  such  rapid  assessment  “information triage”  [3].  Abigail  Sellen  points  out  that  this  kind  of   3 information gathering and assessment activity takes up a  higher  percentage  than  any  other  Web-based knowledge  worker  activity,  and  yet  is  the  least supported  in  browsers  [5].  Problems  on  the  desktop with  assessing  and  then  keeping  track  of  information assessed  over  pages  of  clicks  is  only  amplified  on limited screen devices. To support information triage on small  devices,  mSpace  Mobile  combines  7  interaction techniques, getting significant benefit over any one of these  techniques  used  alone:  These  are:  ZedPanes, Dimension  selection,  PaneSlider,  TriageSpace, Annotator/Recommender,  Non-contiguous  multiple selection  and  GPS  Ghost.  Each  is  described  in  turn, following. ZedPanes ZedPanes  is  a  modified  fisheye  lens  type  zoomable, multipane  spatial  interface  specifically  designed  to support persistent  focus+context interaction in  mobile devices.  The  ZedPanes  interface  builds  on  Bederson’s DateLens  [1].  It  uses  the  same  kind  of  fisheye  zoom effect to enable peripheral, legible views of information while  enabling  focus  areas  to  be  enlarged.  While ZedPanes also provides 3 levels of zoom like DateLens it has a unique reusable component architecture for the zooming interface that does not restrict the developer to basic table layouts. In the mSpace Mobile application while the screen shown has been divided into 5 specific zoomable  areas,  these  areas  can  be  easily  changed around  and  reorganized  on  demand;  additional  panes can also be added. The ZedPanes approach in the case of mSpace Mobile supports the persistent availability of (a) an information selection space; (b) an information view for more detailed information on selected items; (c) a map view for locating the selections; (d) a triage area  to  track  what  has  already  been  identified  for further  investigation;  and  (e)  a  selector  area  for shifting  to  related  domains  of  information  relevant  to the current selection (see Figure 1). In mSpace Mobile, we  combine  Zedpanes’  zooming  with  mSpace’s  rapid reorganization/selection of areas of interest (described below)  to  support  persistent  context  for  rapid information triage in mobile contexts. Dimension Selection, PaneSlider and Multiple Selection Dimension Selection enables alternative dimensions to be  added  or  dimensions  currently  in  the  slice  to  be removed.  For  instance,  a  person  may  be  looking  at Events, Artists, Places in the top view (called a slice). They  might  decide  remove  Artists  and  replace  it  with Producers  /production  companies  to  support  different interests (who is putting on the latest run of Guys and Dolls?  Are  they  doing  any  other  shows  in  town?). Similar  to  Dimension  selection,  PaneSlider  enables dimensions to be moved around within the  slice. This manipulation means that people can control how they wish to frame a hierarchy of interest in the information view.  One  may  wish  to  view  a  space  by  Actors  then Films  rather  than  Films  then  Actors,  as  a  simple example.  Dimension  selector  and  PaneSlider  enable easy reconfiguration of slices with available dimensions. mSpace Mobile also enables people to select more than one entity at a time, thus enabling compound queries: “show  me  the  restaurants  and  theaters  that  are  near by”. These will both be displayed in the infobox and on the map view context. This simple but powerful query technique is not yet possible in Google maps. Triage Space As  people  find  elements  of  interest  –  such  as  a restaurant, a film, a CD or a gallery – they can tap and hold  to  add  them  into  the  Interest  pane.  The  list  of   4 entities  in  the  Interest  pane  enables  real  time monitoring of interest space growth, as well as an easy ability  to  keep  elements  of  interest  in  one  place, persistently  in  view.  Selecting  an  entity  in  the  list populates the info view pane with the information about that selection. Annotator/Recommender and GPS Ghost How  does  one  choose  from  a  possible  array  of alternatives? mSpace Mobile incorporates a lightweight means to view several levels of ratings  from buddies, trusted community and third party sources. Icons show averages  of  these  sources.  If  one  is  interested  in interrogating  a  review  further,  they  can  click  on  the icon to explore the reviews for that entity. Likewise, a tap  gesture  brings  up  the  rating/annotating  box  to enable rapid assignment of a rating. A person can then make a  further annotation in text if they wish, either then, or later at their soonest convenience. GPS ghost is  a  reminder  service,  especially  for  those  on  the  go who  may  not  recall  if  they  have  visited  a  particular locale before. The GPS ghost symbol shows up on items that have been visited previously. The user can set the length of time at a site that determines a “visit.” Ghosts can be collected in their own view to put together an ad-hoc diary for later annotation of locations visited.  Conclusions In  this  paper  we  have  presented  the  mSpace  Mobile interaction gestalt of 7 techniques, combined in  novel ways  to  support  rapid  triage  for  people  exploring information  spaces  on  the  go.  The  above  suite  of interaction tools has been deployed using the mSpace Software  Framework  [4]  using  a  combination  of Semantic  Web  technologies  and  open  information sources,  such  as  OpenGuides  and  Wikipedia.  More information  can  be  found  at http://mspace.fm/projects/mobile/.  Early  field  trials with  the  prototype  in  London  have  proven  highly successful against other mobile information interfaces, particularly  when  the  person  is  using  the  interface  in motion [6]. We look forward to running a larger field trial in the near future. References [1]  Bederson, B.B., Clamage, A., Czerwinski, M.P. and Robertson,  G.G.  DateLens:  A  fisheye  calendar interface  for  PDA's.  ACM  Transactions  on Computer-Human  Interaction  (TOCHI),  11  (1). 90-119. [2]  Hearst,  M.,  Elliott,  A.,  English,  J.,  Sinha,  R., Swearingen,  K.  and  Yee,  K.  Finding  the  flow  in web site search. Communications of the ACM, 45 (9). 42-49. [3]  Marshall,  C.C.  and  Shipman,  F.M.,  Spatial Hypertext and the practice of information triage.  Hypertext'97, (1997). 124 - 133 [4]  schraefel, m.c., Smith, D.A., Owens, A., Russell, A.,  Harris,  C.  and  Wilson,  M.L.,  The  evolving mSpace  platform:  leveraging  the  Semantic  Web on  the  Trail  of  the  Memex.    Hypertext  (HT05), (2005). 174-183 [5]  Sellen,  A.J.,  Murphy,  R.  and  Shaw,  K.L.,  How knowledge workers use the web.  CHI'02, (2002). 227 - 234 [6]  Wilson, M., Smith, D.A., Russell, A. and schraefel, m.c.,  mSpace  Mobile:  Exploring  Support  for Mobile  Tasks.    submitted  to  Advanced  Visual Interfaces (AVI06), (2006).     

DateLens: A fisheye calendar interface for PDA's.

Finding the flow in web site search.

How knowledge workers use the web. CHI'02,

mSpace Mobile: Exploring Support for Mobile Tasks. submitted to Advanced Visual Interfaces

Spatial Hypertext and the practice of information triage.

The evolving mSpace platform: leveraging the Semantic Web on the Trail of the Memex. Hypertext (HT05),

mSpace Mobile: a UI Gestalt to Support On-the-Go Info-Interaction

mSpace Mobile: a UI Gestalt to Support On-the-Go Info-Interaction

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