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Backward Highlighting: Enhancing Faceted Search

Backward Highlighting: Enhancing Faceted Search
Backward Highlighting: Enhancing Faceted Search
Directional faceted browsers, like the popular columnar browser iTunes, let a person pick an instance from any column-facet to start their search for music. The expected effect is that any columns to the right are filtered. In keeping with this directional filtering from left to right, however, the unexpected effect is that the columns to the left of the click provide no information about the possible associations to the selected item. In iTunes, this means that any selection in the Album column on the right returns no information about either the Artists (immediate left) or Genres (leftmost) associated with the chosen album. Backward Highlighting is our solution to this problem, which allows users to see and utilize, during search, associations in columns to the left of a selection in a directional column browser like iTunes. Unlike other possible solutions, this technique allows such browsers to keep direction in their filtering, and so provides users with the best of both directional and non-directional styles. Providing the technique is not cheap, however, as it produces significantly more queries over the data. As well as describing the detail of Backward Highlighting, this paper presents the results of a formative user study into the benefits the technique provides to users. System designers can then determine whether the technique should be used given both the system costs and the significant benefits shown for information discovery and subsequent retention in memory.
235-238
Wilson, Max L.
b34ab988-f78f-47bd-bf34-1a36be06b488
Andre, Paul
7fc415a5-9058-4624-9eec-8104baf67088
schraefel, m.c.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f
Wilson, Max L.
b34ab988-f78f-47bd-bf34-1a36be06b488
Andre, Paul
7fc415a5-9058-4624-9eec-8104baf67088
schraefel, m.c.
ac304659-1692-47f6-b892-15113b8c929f

Wilson, Max L., Andre, Paul and schraefel, m.c. (2008) Backward Highlighting: Enhancing Faceted Search. Proceedings of the 21st Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST2008), Monterey, CA, United States. 19 - 22 Oct 2008. pp. 235-238 . (Submitted)

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Directional faceted browsers, like the popular columnar browser iTunes, let a person pick an instance from any column-facet to start their search for music. The expected effect is that any columns to the right are filtered. In keeping with this directional filtering from left to right, however, the unexpected effect is that the columns to the left of the click provide no information about the possible associations to the selected item. In iTunes, this means that any selection in the Album column on the right returns no information about either the Artists (immediate left) or Genres (leftmost) associated with the chosen album. Backward Highlighting is our solution to this problem, which allows users to see and utilize, during search, associations in columns to the left of a selection in a directional column browser like iTunes. Unlike other possible solutions, this technique allows such browsers to keep direction in their filtering, and so provides users with the best of both directional and non-directional styles. Providing the technique is not cheap, however, as it produces significantly more queries over the data. As well as describing the detail of Backward Highlighting, this paper presents the results of a formative user study into the benefits the technique provides to users. System designers can then determine whether the technique should be used given both the system costs and the significant benefits shown for information discovery and subsequent retention in memory.

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More information

Submitted date: 3 April 2008
Additional Information: Event Dates: October 19-22, 2008
Venue - Dates: Proceedings of the 21st Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST2008), Monterey, CA, United States, 2008-10-19 - 2008-10-22
Organisations: Agents, Interactions & Complexity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 265428
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/265428
PURE UUID: 243a9316-c714-4bd4-9e25-6e6def94b81b
ORCID for m.c. schraefel: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-9061-7957

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Apr 2008 09:16
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:16

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Contributors

Author: Max L. Wilson
Author: Paul Andre
Author: m.c. schraefel ORCID iD

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