Incorporating Metadata into Search User Interfaces

1. Incorporating Metadata into Search User Interfaces Marti Hearst UC Berkeley March 2001

2. Main Ideas • Search is changing: • More emphasis on flexibly showing next choices • Less emphasis on ranking • Web design is changing: • More emphasis on dynamically determined views • Less emphasis on pre-determined links • Two key ideas: • Task-specific design • Harnessing the power of metadata

3. Outline • Background • Search • Metadata • Information architecture • Two web-based examples • Recipes • Sporting Goods • Two collection-based examples • Medical text • Architectural Images • Conclusions

4. Web Search is Working! Survey finds high user satisfaction Study by npd group From http://searchenginewatch.internet.com/reports/npd.html

5. Why is Web Search Working? • Web Search is successful at finding good starting points (home pages) • Evidence: • Search engines using • Link analysis • Page popularity • Directory categories • These all find dominant home pages

8. Consequences • Web search engines are providing source selection! • So … what happens when the user reaches the site? Follow Links … or … Search

9. Following Hyperlinks • Works great when it is clear where to go next • Frustrating when the desired directions are undetectable or unavailable Site Search • This is not getting good reviews

10. text search An Analogy hypertext

11. Analogy • Hypertext: • A fixed number of choices of where to go next; • A glance at the map tells you where you are; • But may not go where you want to go. • To get from Topeka to Santa Fe, may have to go through Frostbite Falls • Site Search: • Can go anywhere; • But may get stuck, disoriented, in a crevasse!

12. Goal: An All-Tertrain Vehicle • The best of both techniques • A vehicle that magically lays down track to suggest choices of where you want to go next based on what you’ve done so far and what you are trying to do • The tracks follow the lay of the land and go everywhere, but cross over the crevasses • The tracks allow you to back up easily

13. How to make an all-tertrain vehicle? Two ideas: Focus on the task. Use metadata explicitly.

14. The Importance of the Task Data-centric Task-centric Searching patent databases vs. Proving non-infringement Browsing newsgroups vs. Finding the denial-of-service hacker Getting all recent news vs. Anticipating the competition

15. The Importance of the Task: Indirect Evidence • How does Web page download time effect usability? • In one study, Jared Spool’s UIE team found: (56kbit modem) • Amazon: 36 sec/page (avg) • About.com: 8 sec/page (avg) • Users rated the sites: • Fastest: Amazon • Slowest: About.com • Why?

16. The Importance of the Task • Perceived speed • Strong correlation between perceived speed and whether the users felt they completedtheir task • Strong correlation between perceived speed and whether the users felt they always knew what to do next (scent).

17. Metadata • Metadata is: • Data about data • Structures and languages for the description of information resources and their elements

18. Thesauri (Categories) • A collection of selected vocabulary • Broader, narrower, related-to relations • Describe the content • Medical text • Anatomy, Disease, Chemicals, Procedures… • Architectural images • Location, Style, Materials, Period … • Recipes! • Cuisine, Ingredients, Season, Calories … • These are often organized as hierarchical and faceted

19. GeoRegion + Time/Date + Topic + Role New interfaces are mixing and matching thesaurus-style metadata The question: how to do this effectively?

20. What about Yahoo? Let’s try to find UCB

21. What about Yahoo?

22. What about Yahoo?

23. What about Yahoo? Where is UCB?

24. Yahoo does use some metadata well • Yahoo restaurant guide combines: • Region • Topic (restaurants) • Related Information • Other attributes (cuisines) • Other topics related in place and time (movies)

25. Yellow: geographic region Green:restaurants&attributes Red: related in place & time

26. Region State City A & E Film Theatre Music Restaurants California Eclectic Indian French Combining Information Types Assumed task: looking for evening entertainment

27. Other Possible Combinations • Region + A&E • City + Restaurant + Movies • City + Weather • City + Education: Schools • Restaurants + Schools • …

28. Bookstore preview combinations • topic + related topics • topic + publications by same author • topic + books of same type but related topic

29. Goals for Metadata Usage • Well-integrated with search • Provides useful hints of where to go next • Tailored to task as it develops • Personalized • Dynamic

30. Recipe Example

31. soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

32. soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

33. soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

34. www.epicurious.com

35. www.epicurious.com

36. www.epicurious.com

37. www.epicurious.com

38. Epicurious Metadata Usage • Advantages • Creates combinations of metadata on the fly • Different metadata choices show the same information in different ways • Previews show how many recipes will result • Easy to back up • Supports several task types • ``Help me find a summer pasta,'' (ingredient type with event type), • ``How can I use an avocado in a salad?'' (ingredient type with dish type), • ``How can I bake sea-bass'' (preparation type and ingredient type)

39. A View of Web Site Structure (Newman et al. 00) • Information design • structure, categories of information • Navigation design • interaction with information structure • Graphic design • visual presentation of information and navigation (color, typography, etc.) Courtesy of Mark Newman

40. Information Architecture vs. UI(Newman et al. 00) • Information Architecture • includes management and more responsibility for content • User Interface Design • includes testing and evaluation Courtesy of Mark Newman

41. Recipe Information Architecture • Information design • Recipes have five types of metadata categories • Cuisine, Preparation, Ingredients, Dish, Occasion • Each category has one level of subcategories

42. Recipe Information Architecture • Navigation design • Home page: • show top level of all categories • Other pages: • A link on an attribute ANDS that attribute to the current query; results are shown according to a category that is not yet part of the query • A change-view link does not change the query, but does change which category’s metadata organizes the results

43. Ingredient Dish Cuisine Prepare Recipe Metadata usage in Epicurious

44. Ingredient Dish Cuisine Prepare Select Dish Cuisine Prepare I Metadata usage in Epicurious

45. Ingredient Dish Cuisine Prepare > Dish Cuisine Prepare Group by Metadata usage in Epicurious I

46. Ingredient Dish Cuisine Prepare Dish Cuisine Prepare Group by Metadata usage in Epicurious > I

47. Ingredient Dish Cuisine Prepare Dish Cuisine Prepare Group by Metadata usage in Epicurious > I Select I Cuisine Prepare

48. Metadata Usage in Epicurious • Can choose category types in any order • But categories never more than one level deep • And can never use more than one instance of a category • Even though items may be assigned more than one of each category type • Items (recipes) are dead-ends • Don’t link to “more like this” • Not fully integrated with search

49. Epicurious Metadata Usage Problem: lacks integration with search

50. Sporting Goods Example