1 / 24

Phlat

Phlat. Ph ast & ph lexible personal search and organization. Ed Cutrell Microsoft Research Adaptive Systems & Interaction Group. Outline. Personal search today Search with Phlat With: Susan Dumais, Daniel Robbins, Raman Sarin Search/Browse/Filter Tagging Evaluation & Lessons

stanley
Download Presentation

Phlat

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Phlat Phast & phlexible personal search and organization Ed CutrellMicrosoft ResearchAdaptive Systems & Interaction Group

  2. Outline • Personal search today • Search with Phlat • With: Susan Dumais, Daniel Robbins, Raman Sarin • Search/Browse/Filter • Tagging • Evaluation & Lessons • Memory Landmarks • Implicit Query

  3. Search in 2004 … • Many locations, interfaces for finding things (e.g., web, mail, local files, help, history, notes) “… the No.1 question we're trying to solve [in Longhorn] is ‘Where's my stuff?’ Right now, file space on any PC is a cesspool. “ Bill Gates, FORTUNE interview, June 23, 2002 • Often slow

  4. Stuff I’ve Seen • In 2001, we built SIS • Deployed to ~3000 people in MSFT • Allowed us to study how people use (& want to use) personal search • Limited prototype but very successful

  5. Search Today • Desktop search hits the bigtime! • MSN Toolbar—Windows Desktop Search • Google DS • Yahoo! Toolbar (X1 DS) • Copernic DS • Apple OS X Tiger with Spotlight • Many others… • Unified index of full-text & metadata for different stores • Re-use vs. initial discovery

  6. Simple UI on Rich Client

  7. Search with Phlat • Phlat asks: Can we design an intuitive and flexible interface that replaces the traditional search/browse dichotomy? • Topple the tyranny of the rigid hierarchical file system!(folders: keep the metadata and toss the metaphor) • Embrace the power of the index!(real-time interaction on any axis) • Powered by Windows Desktop Search • Phlat is a client shell that runs against the index built & maintained by Windows DS (MSN Toolbar) • Queries routed through SIS Communications layer (C#)

  8. Faceted property filtering • 5 canonical properties to filter on (extensible) • Prop filters integrated with query • Type-in for each property (wordwheel) • Search==Browse

  9. Tagging • Apply single set of user-generated metadata to all files, email, etc. • Allow but not require hierarchy • Tags are directly associated with files (NTFS or MAPI props) • Need to hook CFD • Delay associated with query & indexer

  10. Demo

  11. Evaluating Phlat • Internal deployment • ~500 downloads • Users include: program management, test, sales, development, administrative, executives, etc. • Research techniques • Free-form feedback • Questionnaires; Structured interviews • Usage patterns from log data • Gaze tracking studies • Lab studies for richer UI (e.g., timeline, trends)

  12. User Logging • Phlat records a broad range of query characteristics to help us understand the characteristics of usage. • Age of items opened • Characteristics of query and filters used • Number of tags applied • Cycle of query iteration • Special instrumented version for gaze tracking research

  13. Phlat Observations 1(unified access) • Metadata quality is variable • Email: rich, pretty clean • Web: little, not very useful for retrieval • Files: some, but often wrong • Human annotation: don’t depend on it…( but good UI in authoring environments can help) • Memory depends on abstractions • Date is dependent on the object! • Appointment, when it happens • File, when it is changed • Email and Web, when it is seen • People • To, From, Cc, Author, Artist • Document names

  14. Phlat Observations 2(tricky business) • Internet cache & web history are very useful but tricky areas • Cache can be confusing, but re-access is important • Access to temp files is GREAT • Tagging • Hierarchy important for tag organization and cognitive assistance, but flexibility is key (think organic) • MUST make tagging UI ubiquitous and available at inflection points of information consumption • Sharing tricky

  15. Timeline w/ Landmarks • Timeline interface (with Merrie Ringel & Eric Horvitz) • Augmented with landmarks as pointers into human memory • General: holidays, world events • Personal: important photos, appointments • Heuristics or Bayesian models to identify memorable events

  16. Distribution of Results Over Time Search Results • Memory Landmarks • General (world, calendar) • Personal (appts, photos) • <linked by time to results> SIS, Timeline w/ Landmarks

  17. Demo

  18. 30 25 20 Search Time (s) 15 10 5 0 Dates Only Landmarks + Dates Timeline Experiment With Landmarks Without Landmarks

  19. Contextualizing Search • Search is not the end goal … Finding: • Always available search from task bar • Search from within apps • Plug-ins w/ queries to Phlat/Desktop Search • Research pane • Implicit queries • Proactively finding results Using: • e.g., drag/drop, tag, etc.

  20. Implicit Queries Quick searches for people associated with the message and Subject. Background search on top k interesting terms from message, based on user’s index — Score = tfdoc / log(tfcorpus+1) Go to SIS for immediate detailed search. Box autofills with IQ search terms. Top N hits for IQ based on size of window. Open items directly.

  21. IQ Demo

  22. Learn More • Phlat is usable NOW!http://phlat • Design goes well beyond the prototype. Feel free to view spec:http://team/sites/phlat • More info, papers, etc. http://research.microsoft.com/~cutrell • Related projects at MSFT • Memex, Tesla, Longhorn

  23. Thank You!

More Related