TY - GEN
T1 - Searchling
T2 - 12th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries, ECDL 2008
AU - Stafford, Amy
AU - Shiri, Ali
AU - Ruecker, Stan
AU - Bouchard, Matthew
AU - Mehta, Paras
AU - Anvik, Karl
AU - Rossello, Ximena
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - In this paper, we describe a qualitative user study of Searchling - an experimental visual interface that allows users to leverage a bilingual thesaurus for query formulation and enhancement. The design of Searchling is based on theories of thesaurus-based interface design from Shiri et al. [1], combined with the principles of rich-prospect browsing [2]. The Searchling interface provides the user with three working spaces on one screen: the Thesaurus space, Query space, and Document space. We interviewed 15 graduate and faculty researchers at the University of Alberta, who carried out three structured tasks in a thinkaloud protocol, with simultaneous audio recording and screen capture. These participants identified a number of significant advantages to the researcher provided by Searchling, including the value of having an interface that could help with identifying search terms, suggesting preferred terms, and giving bilingual search support. They also suggested areas for future improvement, primarily related to our assumption that common knowledge of thesauri would be sufficient to make the various features clear if they were described using standard vocabulary from the thesaurus field.
AB - In this paper, we describe a qualitative user study of Searchling - an experimental visual interface that allows users to leverage a bilingual thesaurus for query formulation and enhancement. The design of Searchling is based on theories of thesaurus-based interface design from Shiri et al. [1], combined with the principles of rich-prospect browsing [2]. The Searchling interface provides the user with three working spaces on one screen: the Thesaurus space, Query space, and Document space. We interviewed 15 graduate and faculty researchers at the University of Alberta, who carried out three structured tasks in a thinkaloud protocol, with simultaneous audio recording and screen capture. These participants identified a number of significant advantages to the researcher provided by Searchling, including the value of having an interface that could help with identifying search terms, suggesting preferred terms, and giving bilingual search support. They also suggested areas for future improvement, primarily related to our assumption that common knowledge of thesauri would be sufficient to make the various features clear if they were described using standard vocabulary from the thesaurus field.
KW - Information retrieval
KW - Multilingual digital libraries
KW - Thesauri
KW - User evaluation
KW - Visual interfaces
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=55249110819&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=55249110819&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-540-87599-4_13
DO - 10.1007/978-3-540-87599-4_13
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:55249110819
SN - 3540875980
SN - 9783540875987
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 117
EP - 121
BT - Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries - 12th European Conference, ECDL 2008, Proceedings
Y2 - 14 September 2008 through 19 September 2008
ER -