(31) The User Interface in Text Retrieval Systems

J. Univers. Comput. Sci., 2011

Visualization of search results is an essential step in the textual Information Retrieval (IR) process. Indeed, Information Retrieval Interfaces (IRIs) are used as a link between users and IR systems, a simple example being the ranked list proposed by common search engines. Due to the importance that takes visualization of search results, many interfaces have been proposed in the last decade (which can be textual, 2D or 3D IRIs). Two kinds of evaluation methods have been developed: (1) various evaluation methods of these interfaces were proposed aiming at validating ergonomic and cognitive aspects; (2) various evaluation methods were applied on information retrieval systems (IRS) aiming at measuring their effectiveness. However, as far as we know, these two kinds of evaluation methods are disjoint. Indeed, considering a given IRI associated to a given IRS, what happens if we associate this IRI to another IRS not having the same effectiveness. In this context, we propose an IRI evalu...

Proceedings of the 19th annual international ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval - SIGIR '96, 1996

Designing good user interfaces to information retrieval systems is a complex activity. The design space is large and evaluation methodologies that go beyond the classical precision and recall figures are not well established. In this paper we present an evaluation of an intelligent interface that covers also the user-system interaction and measures user's satisfaction. More specifically, we describe an experiment that evaluates: (i) the added value of the semiautomatic query reformulation implemented in a prototype system; (ii) the importance of technical, terminological, and strategic supports and (iii) the best way to provide them. The interpretation of results leads to guidelines for the design of user interfaces to information retrieval systems and to some observations on the evaluation issue.

Information Retrieval has become common-place with the advent of the Internet with most Internet users being familiar with the use of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and the like. Indeed, with the amount of information on the Internet growing so rapidly, search engines are crucial in finding what we want.

1998

The ideal user interface is comprehensible, predictable, and controllable, but many current textsearch interfaces���especially on the World-Wide Web���involve unnecessarily complex and obscure features. The result is confusion and frustration for advanced users as well as for beginners, scientists, and students [8].

1990

1989

Information Processing and Management, 1993

We suggest that information retrieval is most appropriately considered as an inherently interactive process, and describe the design of an interface to a bibliographic information retrieval system that supports user interaction in an integrated fashion. A significant aspect of the interface design is its dependence upon a two-level hypertext model of information retrieval system databases, and the seamless support of a variety of information seeking strategies through the use of this model, and of a model of dimensions of information seeking behaviors. l method of interaction (scanning-searching); l goal of interaction (learning-selecting); l mode of retrieval (recognition-specification); and l resource considered (information items-meta-information).

ACM SIGIR Forum, 1989

In conventional Boolean retrieval systems, users have difficulty controlling the amount of output obtained from a given query. This paper describes the design of a user interface which permits gradual enlargement or refinement of the user's query by browsing through a graph of term and document subsets. This graph is obtained from a lattice automatically generated from the usual document-term relation. The major design features of the proposed interface are the integration of menu, fill-in the blank and direct manipulation modes of interaction within the “fisheye view” [Furnas, 1986] paradigm. A prototype user interface incorporating some of these ideas has been implemented on a microcomputer. The resulting interface is well adapted to various kinds of users and needs. More experienced users with a particular subject in mind can directly specify a query which results into a jump to a particular vertex in the graph. From there, the user can refine his initial query by browsing th...

Decision Support Systems, 1999

In this study, we conducted a computer-based experiment to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of six different interface designs, graphical or list-based, in supporting communication of an object's ''relevance'' from an information Ž. retrieval IR system to its users. We adopted the Model Human Processor to provide a necessary framework to incorporate relevant cognitive psychology theories and user-centered design principles in the development of different interfaces. The study had a well-researched theoretical foundation, complied with relevant design principles, and included a large-scale empirical evaluation. Our results suggest that interface design may have a significant effect on system-user concept communication, regardless of users' familiarity with the search task, and that a graphical user interface may be more effective in supporting such communication than a list-based design. Furthermore, we also examined the cognitive load and user satisfaction resulting from each investigated interface design. Findings of the study have important implications for the Ž. design of IR systems including online library systems and Internet-based search systems as well as for the information representation and visualization of knowledge management systems, which ordinarily depend on text-based display methods to support system-user concept communication.