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Laid Back Searching

Laid Back Searching. Computing for the human pace. Matt Jones The New Zealand Digital Library & HCI Lab Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ. always@acm.org www.nzdl.org. Thanks to:. MDX George Buchanan UCL Harold Thimbleby UCT SA Gary Marsden Waikato NZ

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Laid Back Searching

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  1. Laid Back Searching Computing for the human pace Matt Jones The New Zealand Digital Library & HCI Lab Department of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ.always@acm.org www.nzdl.org

  2. Thanks to: • MDX • George Buchanan • UCL • Harold Thimbleby • UCT SA • Gary Marsden • Waikato NZ • Preeti Jain, Sebastian Dusterwald, Brendan Waugh • Google CA • Craig Nevill-Manning, Google Research Lab

  3. Searching • Pervasive activity. • 150 million queries a day at Google • Most done in “sit-forward” mode

  4. Sit forward+ +Special issue of ACM TOCHI, June 2002, New Usability

  5. Lean back

  6. Laid-back • Embedded- • Mobile • Handheld • User in control • Non-disruptive • Persistent • … • …

  7. Exploring “laid-back” in search context • Users’ search needs • Issues with sit-forward mobile solution. • Laid-back search scheme • Implementation and issues • Evaluation

  8. Thinking of things to search for…

  9. Problems • Notes lost • Making sense of notes • Context lost • Time

  10. An obvious solution..?

  11. Handheld mobile search today.

  12. Usability impact of small screen & Google • WAP hopeless • Palm-sized encouraging • When users fail, they fail badly. Details in Matt Jones et al, “Sorting our Searching”, Proceedings 4th International Symposium on Mobile HCI, Pisa, September 2002.

  13. High cost of exploring a search result

  14. Improving search usability • Simple measures to ensure better search result selection • Reduce navigation within search results • More information with search results – e.g., is this a small screen adapted page? • Adapt search results

  15. Reducing overload • PowerBrowser • Filtering process • Search results only shown when user decides number is manageable Orkut Buyukkokten et al Focused Web Searching with PDAs. In Proceedings of the Ninth World Wide Web Conference, 2000.

  16. Reducing scrolling and providing more information • WebTwig • Outliner view of search results • Provides search result context Matt Jones et al, “Sorting our Searching”, Proceedings 4th International Symposium on Mobile HCI, Pisa Sept 2002

  17. Adapting web pages • WAP • Accordion summarisation (PowerBrowser)

  18. So, why not right there, right then? • Socially disruptive? • Disrupts prime goals? • Too much likelihood of frustration, ineffectiveness?

  19. Laid-back scheme

  20. Recording searches

  21. Recording searches • Queries can be entered and edited over time. • Simple duplication checking carried out • More advanced post-entry processing under investigation

  22. Processing the queries • Transfer queries to server PC via cradle or local wireless connection

  23. Processing queries • Search requests sent to Google • i results to depth j retrieved (simple Web crawling) • Transferred back to handheld computer

  24. Flexible use of the search results • Handheld Offline • PC online • Handheld online

  25. Proposed benefits • Guaranteeing searches • Persistence of search process • More considered use of search results • Cf. hyperactivity of simple online search • Filling dead-time

  26. Evaluation • Approach is very simple • But, will it really provide a satisfying and useful integration of online and offline worlds? • Initial User study underway • System given to several users to see if/how they use it over a number of weeks

  27. Evaluation • Technical issues • Storage limitations on handheld computers • E.g. IPAQ 32MB • Large amounts of storage required for offline viewing • E.g. 2 queries, 10 results each, to depth 2 needed 10.5MB

  28. Possible solutions • Compression (already done in commercial Avantgo.com service) • Summarisation/ pruning of content • Offline/online combination

  29. Further work • Query post-processing • E.g., automatic combination/ suggestion • Search result processing • Presentation • Grouping • Implicit searching • From other handheld computer data

  30. Interesting parallels • MotorWizzy digital courier, South Africa • Knowledge-Base Agents • Brad Myer’s Pebbles work http://www.wizzy.org.za/ Aridor, Y., Carmel. D., Maarek, Y. S., Soffer, A. & Lempel, R. Knowledge encapsulation for focused search from pervasive devices. ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) January 2002 Volume 20, Issue 1 http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~pebbles/

  31. Conclusions • Laid-back computing is a “third-way” • Exploring broader ideas via search application • Working paper at • www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~mattj/laidback.pdf

  32. Come and help us… Visit laid-back NZ! (www.purenz.com)

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