We describe the design, implementation, and pilot study for SenseMaker, an interface for information exploration across heterogeneous sources. We propose supporting the contextdriven evolution of a user's interests via: (1) an approximation of the current information context as the current collection of accumulated information references, and (2) a unified set of user-centered actions for examining the current context and for progressing from one context to the next. SenseMaker users examine their current context by experimenting iteratively with different organizing dimensions and levels of granularity for the current collection's display. They progress from one context to another by building upon, taking away from, or replacing the current collection. They can also return to a previous information context and continue exploring from there. Keywords Information exploration, digital libraries, information seeking, information retrieval INTRODUCTION The design of any interface must ...

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Major Web search engines, such as AltaVista, are essential tools in the quest to locate online information. This article reports research that used transaction log analysis to examine the characteristics and changes in AltaVista Web searching that occurred from 1998 to 2002. The research questions we examined are (1) What are the changes in AltaVista Web searching from 1998 to 2002? (2) What are the current characteristics of AltaVista searching, including the duration and frequency of search sessions? (3) What changes in the information needs of AltaVista users occurred between 1998 and 2002? The results of our research show (1) a move toward more interactivity with increases in session and query length, (2) with 70 % of session durations at 5 minutes or less, the frequency of interaction is increasing, but it is happening very quickly, and (3) a broadening range of Web searchers ’ information needs, with the most frequent terms accounting for less than 1 % of total term usage. We discuss the implications of these findings for the development of Web search engines.

The use of data stored in transaction logs of Web search engines, Intranets, and Web sites can provide valuable insight into understanding the information-searching process of online searchers. This understanding can enlighten information system design, interface development, and devising the information architecture for content collections. This article presents a review and foundation for conducting Web search transaction log analysis. A methodology is outlined consisting of three stages, which are collection, preparation, and analysis. The three stages of the methodology are presented in detail with discussions of goals, metrics, and processes at each stage. Critical terms in transaction log analysis for Web searching are defined. The strengths and limitations of transaction log analysis as a research method are presented. An application to log client-side interactions that supplements transaction logs is reported on, and the application is made available for use by the research community. Suggestions are provided on ways to leverage the strengths of, while addressing the limitations of, transaction log analysis for Web-searching research. Finally, a complete flat text transaction log from a commercial search engine is available as supplementary material with this

The following paper describes a set of methods that is currently used in a study of the task performance process of patent engineers within the Swedish Patent- and Registration Office (SPRO) 1. The focus of the study is to investigate the relationship between the user’s work-task and the information seeking and retrieval process. The study is performed within a real life work setting where patent engineers are performing real work tasks involving real information needs. This paper will focus on and describe a set of data collection methods used in our study. Generally, IR studies are performed within a controlled laboratory environment with controlled variables and design or simulated information need. We argue that we need to take a broader perspective on the information seeking and retrieval in order to understand the task performance process and elicit requirements for information systems design.

Although no unified definition of the concept of search strategy in Information Retrieval (IR) exists so far, its importance is manifest: nonexpert users, directly interacting with an IR system, apply alimited portfolio of simple actions; they do not know how to react in critical situations; and they often do not even realize that their difficulties are due to strategic problems. Auser interface to an IR system should therefore provide some strategic help, focusing user’s attention on strategic issues and providing tools to generate better strategies. Because neither the user nor the system can autonomously solve the information problem, but they complement each other, we propose acollaborative coaching approach,inwhichthetwopartnerscooperate:theuser retains the control of the session and the system provides suggestions. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated by a conceptual analysis, a prototype knowledge-based system named FIRE, and its evaluation through informal laboratory experiments.

A key to the Web's success is the power of search. The elegant way in which search results are returned is usually remarkably effective. However, for exploratory search in which users need to learn, discover, and understand novel or complex topics, there is substantial room for improvement. Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results. This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney).

We show how personalization techniques can be exploited to implement more adaptive and effective information access systems in electronic publishing. We distinguish persistent (or long term) and ephemeral (or short term) personalization, and we describe how both of them can be profitably applied in information filtering and retrieval systems used, via a specialized Web portal, by physicists in their daily job. By means of several experimental results, we demonstrate that persistent personalization is needed and useful for information filtering systems, and ephemeral personalization leads to more effective and usable information retrieval systems.

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searching facilities provide inadequate support to help them reach their information-seeking objectives. The emergence of interfaces with more advanced capabilities such as faceted browsing and result clustering can go some way to some way toward addressing such problems. The evaluation of these interfaces, however, is challenging since they generally offer diverse and versatile search environments that introduce overwhelming amounts of independent variables to user studies; choosing the interface object as the only independent variable in a study would reveal very little about why one design out-performs another. Nonetheless if we could effectively compare these interfaces we would have a way to determine which was best for a given scenario and begin to learn why. In this article we present a formative framework for the evaluation of advanced search interfaces through the quantification of the strengths and weaknesses of the interfaces in supporting user tactics and varying user conditions. This framework combines established models of users, user needs, and user behaviours to achieve this. The framework is applied to evaluate three search interfaces and demonstrates the potential value of this approach to interactive IR evaluation. † Primary Contact Author 1.