Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Using meaningful and stable categories to support exploratory web search: Two formative studies (27 Dec 2005) The results of these formative studies suggest answers to our original three research goals: Exploratory search tasks can be supported by categorizing search results into comprehensible visual overviews using meaningful classifications. Stable classifications and dynamically generated classifications can be complementary ways to organize results. The use of stable hierarchies helped participants notice missing information, and the dynamically generated classifications were found useful for generating topic ideas. The study results also motivated several new requirements: user-selectable classifications and a lightweight mechanism for customizing hierarchies. To better support user-selectable classification, we are investigating the efficacy of ?lightweight? classifications, which use simple schemes (e.g. DNS domain, the last time the document was viewed, or document size) to organize results into easily understood categories. The studies were used to refine two of the six principles and they reinforced our confidence in three others. They raised the question of which tasks are best supported by stable categories vs. dynamic categories. Many important issues remain, such as spatial layout, textual elements and dynamic interactions of categorized search result visualization and optimal characteristics (e.g. breadth and depth) of hierarchy. Additional research is needed to model the specific strategies and tactics that searchers apply within exploratory search sub-tasks, and to more fully explicate their use of domain, classification and interface knowledge. This could inform the development of a cognitive model of user exploration and understanding of categorized search results. Add this article to Del.icio.us Article URL: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2005-31/2005-31.htm Read 72 more articles from University Of Maryland sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: From Characters to Web Services - to Internationalization is Everywhere          Books about Usability | Information Architecture | Information Visualisation | Technology History This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy

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