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

The field of information retrieval has traditionally focused on textbases consisting of titles and abstracts. As a consequence, many underlying assumptions must be altered for retrieval from full-length text collections. This paper argues for making use of text structure when retrieving from full text documents, and presents a visualization paradigm, called TileBars, that demonstrates the usefulness of explicit term distribution information in Boolean-type queries. TileBars simultaneously and compactly indicate relative document length, query term frequency, and query term distribution. The patterns in a column of TileBars can be quickly scanned and deciphered, aiding users in making judgments about the potential relevance of the retrieved documents. KEYWORDS: Information retrieval, Full-length text, Visualization. INTRODUCTION Information access systems have traditionally focused on retrieval of documents consisting of titles and abstracts. As a consequence, the underlying assumpt...

We report on a laboratory study that compares reading from paper to reading on-line. Critical differences have to do with the major advantages paper offers in supporting annotation while reading, quick navigation, and flexibility of spatial layout. These, in turn, allow readers to deepen their understanding of the text, extract a sense of its structure, create a plan for writing, cross-refer to other documents, and interleave reading and writing. We discuss the design implications of these findings for the development of better reading technologies.

This paper describes an experiment comparing two methods for viewing hierarchically clustered networks. Traditional full-zoom techniques provide details of only the current level of the hierarchy. In contrast fisheye views, generated by the "variable zoom" algorithm described in this paper, provides information about higher levels as well. Subjects using both viewing methods were given problem solving tasks requiring them to navigate a network, in this case a simulated telephone system, and to reroute links in it. Results suggest that the greater context provided by fisheye views significantly improved a user's performance of the tasks. They were quicker to complete their task, and they made fewer unnecessary navigational steps through the hierarchy. This validation of fisheye views is important for designers of interfaces to complicated monitoring systems, such as control rooms for supervisory control and data acquisition systems, where efficient human performance is often critical. However, control room operators remained concerned about the size and visibility tradeoffs between the fine detail provided by full-zooms, and the global context supplied by fisheye views. Specific interface features are required to reconcile the differences.

Abstract not found

this paper but makes the predictive model more complete. 2 Experiment

Traditionally hypertexts have been limited in size by the manual effort required to create hypertext links. In addition, large hyper-linked collections may overwhelm users with the range of possible links from any node, only a fraction of which may be appropriate for a given user at any time. This work explores automatic methods of link construction based on feedback from users collected during browsing. A fulltext search engine mediates the linking process. Query terms that distinguish well among documents in the database become candidate anchors; links are mediated by passage-based relevance feedback queries. The newspaper metaphor is used to organize the retrieval results. VOIR, a software prototype that implements these algorithms has been used to browse a 74,500 node (250MB) database of newspaper articles. An experiment has been conducted to test the relative effectiveness of dynamic links and user-specified queries. Experimental results suggest that link-mediated queries are more effective than user-specified queries in retrieving relevant information. The paper concludes with a discussion of possible extensions to the linking algorithms.

Essential features of interfaces to support end-user information seeking are discussed and illustrated. Ex-amples of interfaces to support the following basic information-seeking functions are presented: problem definition, source selection, problem articulation, exami-nation of results, and information extraction. It is argued that present interfaces focus on problem articulation and examination of results functions, and research and development are needed to support the problem defini-tion and information extraction functions. General rec-ommendations for research on interfaces to support end-user information seeking include: attention to multi-media information sources, development of interfaces that integrate information-seeking functions, support for collaborative information seeking, use of multiple

"Linking by inking" is a new interface for reader-directed link construction that bridges reading and browsing activities. We are developing linking by inking in XLibris, a hypertext system based on the paper document metaphor. Readers use a pen computer to annotate page images with free-form ink, much as they would on paper, and the computer constructs hypertext links based on the ink marks. This paper proposes two kinds of readerdirected links: automatic and manual. Automatic links are created in response to readers' annotations. The system extracts the text near free-form ink marks, uses these terms to construct queries, executes queries against a collection of documents, and unobtrusively displays links to related documents in the margin or as "further reading lists." We also present a design for manual (ad hoc) linking: circling an ink symbol generates a multi-way link to other instances of the same symbol.

We report on the progressive investigation of techniques for supporting interactive query reformulation in the TREC Interactive Track task. Two major issues were explored over four successive years: various methods of term suggestion; and, interface design to support different system functionalities. Each year’s results led to the following year’s investigation, with respect to both of these major issues. This paper presents first the general motivation for the entire series of studies; then an overview of each year’s investigation, its results, and how they influenced the next year’s investigation. We discuss what we believe has been learned through this series of investigations about effective term suggestion, usable and useful interface design, and the relationships between these two in support of the TREC Interactive Track task. We conclude with some comments about the general methodology which we employed over this series of studies, and its relevance to the development and evaluation of interactive information retrieval systems in general.