 Abstract | The research presented in this dissertation centres on the search user interface. The
search user interface is the graphical user interface between where a human searcher
interacts with a set of search results that a search engine serves in response to a request
by the searcher.
We are accustomed to linear, ranked-list interfaces that support information search
across pages upon pages of search results. However, whilst ranked-list interfaces have
a number of useful and usable characteristics - that for the most part, have served our
search activities well - some search is not well supported by such interfaces. Future
designers should focus efforts on provisioning an appropriate level of information in
appropriate forms to searchers.
Three human-based experiments are proposed and reported; each experiment tackles
a different aspect of information display. Two experiments investigate ways that
information can be presented in graphical form in an information visualisation tradition.
In contrast, a third experiment investigates interface configuration with the intention to optimise the way textual information is presented to the user.
Together, the results form a picture of where future search interface design should
move. By nature of the textual documents we search for, our interfaces must provision
textual cues to the searcher. However and where possible, attributes of and
relationships between documents should be expressed in graphical and spatial forms to
facilitate quick and effortless comparison between documents.
Search user interfaces connect digital and cognitive worlds. It is increasingly apparent
that building such interfaces necessitates a concerted, interdisciplinary effort of
research and development. Accordingly, future search tools will be reliant on both an
understanding of the human perceptual-cognitive system, as much as the bits and bytes
that make up our search engine tools. Accordingly, perceptual-cognitive systems and
phenomena have played a major role in the experimental work presented herein. |
