Evaluation of User Comprehension of a Novel Visual Search Interface

Abstract

Advances in Web client technology now enable a richer interface thus supporting the application of visualization to the Web search process. This paper describes a user-centred evaluation of a novel visual search interface. The interface is designed to transparently support both Boolean and frequency models of information retrieval. The interface displays queries and returned results in a single simple graphical representation called Search Sphere. In contrast to both approaches that represent only queries visually and approaches that represent only results visually we integrate queries and result sets in a single visualization. We performed a user-centred study to evaluate both search query and result set comprehension. Comprehension in this context is defined as a user’s correct interpretation of a given query and also his/her ability to select relevant documents from the result set visual. The feedback of this pilot study will be used to guide the development of a second prototype consisting of a rich client visual Web search interface.

Contributors

Adrian O’Riordan

Conference

Publication date: September 2009

Publication date (Print): September 2009

Pages: 2-8

Affiliations

Computer Science, Sir Robert Kane Building, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/FDIA2009.2

Copyright statement: © Adrian O’Riordan. Published by BCS Learning and Development Ltd. Third BCS-IRSG Symposium on Future Directions in Information Access (FDIA 2009), Padua, Italy

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Third BCS-IRSG Symposium on Future Directions in Information Access (FDIA 2009)

Conference acronym: FDIA

Conference number: 3

Conference location: Padua, Italy

Conference date: 1 September 2009

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Computers XXIII Celebrating People and Technology

Product

Product Information: 1477-9358BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/FDIA2009.2

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

Categories

Series title: Electronic Workshops in Computing