From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

Kules, B., Wilson, M., Schraefel, M., Shneiderman, B. (February 2008), From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web: "Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results." [abstract][ fulltext, pdf]

My 2 cents: Here is an interesting visualization of optics, graphics, and perceptions in search and results of searches done using tools, such as, PIM (PHLAT), Cha-cha, The Flamenco--interface permits users to navigate by selecting from multiple facets (Materials and Structure Types)--etc. The table of figures is self explanatory:

Table of Figures

Figure 1. Process model of search in the
context of work and information-seeking
tasks............................................................................................................9
Figure 2. The Cha-Cha system organizes intranet search
results by an automatically generated web site
overview.....................................................................16
Figure 3. The WebTOC system provides a table of contents
visualization that supports search within a web
site.......................................................................................17
Figure 4. The Flamenco interface permits users to navigate
by selecting from multiple facets. In this example, the displayed images have
been filtered by specifying values in two facets (Materials and Structure
Types). The matching images are grouped by subcategories of the Materials
facet’s selected Building Materials
category.........................................................................................................18
Figure 5: Epicurious is a commercial recipe website that
uses Flamenco style faceted search in conjunction with keyword
search.........................................................19
Figure 6: Exhibit faceted search
interface......................................................19
Figure 7: Rave Browser
interface.....................................................................20
Figure 8: mSpace faceted column
browser...........................................................21
Figure 9. The SERVICE web search interface (Turetken and
Sharda, 2005).....22
Figure 10: Dyna-Cat search
interface..........................................................................23
Figure 11. The PunchStock photo search interface provides
categorized overviews of photo search
results..............................................................................................24
Figure 12. The NCSU library catalog provides categorized
overviews of search results using subject headings, format, and library
location...........................................25
Figure
13. The Clusty metasearch engine uses automated clustering to produce
an expandable overview of labeled
clusters.............................................................26
Figure 14: Yoople Search, users can drag items in the
results list to indicate where they think a result should
appear.........................................................................27
Figure 15: A tag cloud taken from Flickr website, included
in (Godwin-Jones,
2006)..........................................................................................................................28
Figure 16: Phlat personal information management
browser...............................29
Figure 17: Exalead
search provides images and categories with each search result, and facets to
help users narrow the
results.................................................................30
Figure 18: A SOM of search results, image taken from
http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr.......31
Figure 19. The
HiveGroup built a demonstration shopping application that allows users to
explore Amazon.com products. (image from
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/hive-birdwatching.jpg).................32
Figure 20. This overview of web search results uses a
treemap. Nesting is used to show both top and second-level categories
simultaneously. The top 200 results for the query "urban sprawl" have been
categorized into a two-level government hierarchy, which is used to present a
categorized overview on the left. The National Park Service has been selected to
filter the results. The effect on the right side is to show just the three
results from the Park Service. (Rivadeneira and Bederson,
2003).......................................................................................32
Figure 21. The CitiViz search interface visualizes search
results using scatterplots, hyperbolic trees, and stacked discs. The hyperbolic
tree, stacked disks, and textual list on the left are all based on the ACM
Computing Classification
System..................................................................................................................33

[Info courtesy: Celia
Walter and Dr. Francis
Jawahar DEVADASON]