ben @ cs.umd.edu A useful starting point for designing advanced graphical user interjaces is the Visual lnformation-Seeking Mantra: overview first, zoom and filter, then details on demand. But this is only a starting point in trying to understand the rich and varied set of information visualizations that have been proposed in recent years. This paper offers a task by data type taxonomy with seven data types (one-, two-, three-dimensional datu, temporal and multi-dimensional data, and tree and network data) and seven tasks (overview, Zoom, filter, details-on-demand, relate, history, and extracts). Everything points to the conclusion that the phrase 'the language of art ' is more

This paper presents a modified diary study that investigated how people performed personally motivated searches in their email, in their files, and on the Web. Although earlier studies of directed search focused on keyword search, most of the search behavior we observed did not involve keyword search. Instead of jumping directly to their

Agents can personalize otherwise impersonal computational systems. The World Wide Web presents the same appearance to every user regardless of that user’s past activity. Web Browser Intelligence (WBI, pronounced “WEB-ee”) is an implemented system that organizes agents on a user’s workstation to observe user actions, proactively offer assistance, modify web documents, and perform new functions. WBI can annotate hyperlinks with network speed information, record pages viewed for later access, and provide shortcut links for common paths. In this way, WBI personalizes a user’s web experience by joining personal information with global information to effectively tailor what the user sees.

A challenge for human-computer interaction researchers and user interface designers is to construct information technologies that support creativity. This ambitious goal can be attained by building on an adequate understanding of creative processes. This paper offers a four-phase framework for creativity that might assist designers in providing effective tools for users:- Collect: learn from previous works stored in digital libraries, the web, etc.- Relate: consult with peers and mentors at early, middle and late stages- Create: explore, compose, and evaluate possible solutions- Donate: disseminate the results and contribute to the digital libraries Within this integrated framework, this paper proposes eight activities that require humancomputer interaction research and advanced user interface design. A scenario about an architect illustrates the process of creative work within such an environment.

The focus of this article is to develop a map display for to stack in the dark, without knowing what stacks that information retrieval. Through an examination of relationships among visual displays, information retrieval, and browsing, advantages of visual displays for informa-tion retrieval are characterized as (1) the ability to con-we have walked through. We can get a few books each time and walk out of the library to see if the book we are searching for is among them. If not, we have to walk vey a large amount of information in a limited space, (2) in again, based on our knowledge and our previous experi-the potential to reveal semantic relationships of terms ence, to a location where we hope the book would be. In and documents, and (3) the facilitation of browsing and perceptual inferences on retrieval interfaces. These ad-vantages are further demonstrated through a map dis-play generated by a neural network’s self-organizing al-this situation, success in finding a book greatly depends on whether we can walk to the right place in the dark (to generate a good query), and whether we know how to gorithm. The map display detects complex relationships adjust our locations until we get to the right place (to among given documents, and reveals the relationships modify queries interactively). through a spatial arrangement of terms abstracted from Can we turn on the light for such a library? Can we the documents. The map display also provides inter-active tools to allow the user to interact with the underlydevelop some visible cues in our retrieval systems so that ing information. Examples of the map displays show that we can use our perception for information seeking in such map displays can be used both as an overview tool the digital environment? Answers to these questions may and an access or exploration tool, and the map displays will likely increase the amount of information that the user is willing to browse. reside in the recent advance of information technology. ‘‘Information processing has been evolving from numeri-cal computation to character handling, and now to visual information processing’ ’ (Kunii, 1989). As a result, visu-

We return to arguments made 10 years ago (Borgman, 1988a) that online catalogs are difficult to use because their design does not incorporate sufficient understanding of searching behavior. The earlier article examined studies of information retrieval system searching for their implica-tions for online catalog design; this article examines the implications of card catalog design for online catalogs. With this analysis, we hope to contribute to a better under-standing of user behavior and to lay to rest thecard catalog design model for online catalogs. We discuss the problems with query matching systems, which were designed for skilled search intermediaries rather than end-users, and the knowledge and skills they require in the information-seeking process, illustrated with examples of searching card and online catalogs. Searching requires conceptual knowledge of the information retrieval process-translat-ing an information need into a searchable query; semantic knowledge of how to implement a query in a given sys-tem-the how and when to use system features; and tech-nical skills in executing the query-basic computing skills and the syntax of entering queries as specific search statements. In the short term, we can help make online cat-alogs easier to use through improved training and docu-mentation that is based on information-seeking behavior, with the caveat that good training is not a substitute for good system design. Our long term goal should be to de-sign intuitive systems that require a minimum of instruc-tion. Given the complexity of the information retrieval prob-lem and the limited capabilities of today’s systems, we are far from achieving that goal. If libraries are to provide pri-mary information services for the networked world, they need to put research results on the information-seeking process into practice in designing the next generation of online public access information retrieval systems.

In this paper we review studies of the growth of the Internet and technologies that are useful for information search and retrieval on the Web. We present data on the Internet from several different sources, e.g., current as well as projected number of users, hosts, and Web sites. Although numerical figures vary, overall trends cited

Interfaces to databases have traditionally been designed as single-user systems that hide other users and their activity. This paper aims to show that collaboration is an important aspect of searching online information stores that requires explicit computerised support. The claim is made that a truly user-centred system must acknowledge and support collaborative interactions between users. Collaborative working implies a need to share information: both the search product and the search process. Searches need not be restricted to inanimate resources but people can also search for other people. The ARIADNE system is introduced as an example of computerised support for collaboration between browsers. A number of systems offering varied approaches to supporting collaboration are surveyed and a structure for analysing the various aspects of collaboration is applied.

Understanding the extent to which people’s search behaviors differ in terms of the interaction flow and information targeted is important in designing interfaces to help World Wide Web users search more effectively. In this paper we describe a longitudinal log-based study that investigated variability in people’s interaction behavior when engaged in search-related activities on the Web. We analyze the search interactions of more than two thousand volunteer users over a five-month period, with the aim of characterizing differences in their interaction styles. The findings of our study suggest that there are dramatic differences in variability in key aspects of the interaction within and between users, and within and between the search queries they submit. Our findings also suggest two classes of extreme user – navigators and explorers – whose search interaction is highly consistent or highly variable. Lessons learned from these users can inform the design of tools to support effective Web-search interactions for everyone.

Browsing accounts for much of people's interaction with digital libraries, but it is poorly supported by standard search engines. Conventional systems often operate at the wrong level, indexing words when people think in terms of topics, and returning documents when people want a broader view. As a result, users cannot easily determine what is in a collection, how well a particular topic is covered, or what kinds of queries will provide useful results. We have built