Chapter 15: Information Search & Visualization

1. Chapter 15: Information Search & Visualization Team 3: Jacob Hicks, Victor Chen, Saba Alavi

2. Introduction • Information exploration overload/anxiety? • Object-actions Interface (OAI) model helps by: • separating different task concepts • separating high-level interface issues from low level interface issues • N00bs in an information-exploration system… • struggle to understand what they see whilst remembering their information needs • might be distracted by learning complex query languages/elaborate shape-coding rules • need direct-manipulation designs/simple visual-coding rules (low cognition) • can request additional features by adjusting control panels • Experienced users want more functionality and power: a wider range of search tools, lots of options

3. Introduction (cont’d) • Task objectsrepresented by interface objectsin structured relational databases or text/media document libraries • Structured relational databasesmade up of relations and a schema (model) to describe relations • Relationshave items(tuples/records), which consist of multiple atomic attributes, each of which have attributevalues • Textual document librarycomprised of collections and descriptive attributes(e.g. location, media type, curator, donor, etc.)

4. Introduction (cont’d) • Multimedia document library same as textual document library, only instead of text, it’s media: images, sound, video, animations, etc. • Task actions(i.e. fact finding) decomposed into browsing/searching, represented by interface actions(i.e. scrolling, zooming, joining, linking) • Finding aids help users focus their info needs (i.e. table of contents, indices, abstracts, etc)

5. Database Query/Phrase Search • SQL a widespread standard for searching in structured relational database systems • Requires substantial time investment to learn • Computer’s capacity for responding to natural language query often limited • Tradeoff exists between ease of use and usefulness • Empirical studies illustrate better performance and more satisfaction when users are able to view and control the search

6. Database Query/Phrase Search • Improved designs & consistency across differing systems allows for faster performance, fewer mistakes, and more successful searches • Recommends four phase framework: • Formulation – expressing the search • Initiation of the action – launching the search • Review of results • Refinement – formulating the next step

7. Multimedia Document Searches • Current approaches to locating media rely on parallel databases and document searches • Advocates for ambitions captioning and attribute recording • Classification according to useful search categories useful, though costly and imperfect • Graphical specification of query components: • Photo search • Map Search • Design/diagram search • Sound search • Video Search • Animation Search

8. Information Visualization • Bandwidth of vision is high • Overview first, zoom and filter, then details on demand. • Data type by task

9. 1-D Linear • Text documents • Source Code • Bifocal Display • Value Bars

10. 2-D Map • Maps • Floorplans • Newspaper layouts

11. 3D World • Real objects, models, ect. • Must keep track of position orientation • Occlusion

12. Temporal data • Time lines • 1D linear • Start and finish time • Events may overlap

13. Multidimesional data • n-dimensional space • Databases with n attributes • Can be 2D or 3D • Scattergrams

14. Tree data • Hierarchies • Can be shown as lines and nodes • Tabbed text files • Cones in 3D

15. Network data • Networks • Cannot be written as a tree • Node-and-link • Square matrix

16. Overview Task • Movable field of view • 3 to 30 zoom amount • Fisheye

17. Zoom task • View a specific area in detail • Smooth zooming preserves orientation • “A satisfying way to zoom in is to point to a location and to issue a zooming command”

18. Filter task • Remove unwanted items • Widgets to regulate process • Dynamic control of items

19. Details-on-demand task • Select item or group to get details • Click on an item to get popup window

20. Relate task • View relationships amoung items • Select an item to highlight related items

21. History task • Keep history to support undo • Tasks from the past combinded

22. Extract Task • Extraction of subcollection of parameters • Allow to save the records that result from a search • Save settings

23. Advanced Filtering • Dynamic queries • Numeric range sliders • Alphasliders for names • Bottons for small sets of categories

24. Commercial Information–retrieval systems • Example – DIALOG or First Search • Permit complex Boolean expressions with parentheses but they are difficult to use • When we say or in English it means not both, but in Boolean OR is inclusive . • New York and Boston ( result 0 )

25. Another form of filtering … • Apply a user-constructed set of keywords to dynamically generated information. Such as incoming email messages….. • A social form of filtering is collaborative filtering ….. Music, Restaurants ..

26. Summary • Improved user interface to traditional databese-query or multimedia-document search will spawn appealing new products. • The more Flexible the better… • 15.7 Search in complex structured documents. graphics, images, sound or video persents grand opportunities for the design of advanced user interfaces and powerful search engines .