Query by Visual Example: Assessing the Usability of Content-Based Image Retrieval System User Interfaces

This paper reports a study designed to investigate the requirements of a user interface for a content-based image retrieval system, and presents the preliminary results of an inquiry into the usability of the query by visual example paradigm. Twenty eight evaluation sessions were conducted to test the usability of two user interfaces. The study was segmented by image type, user group and use function. Usability was measured using a combination of both objective and subjective measuring instruments: benchmark tasks, critical incidents, and the Questionnaire for User Interface Satisfaction (QUIS). Preliminary findings suggest that both user interfaces had an overall positive usability score, although there were a number of areas that would improve the overall score. The results also indicate that the efficacy of some currently used features are questionable.

[1]  Amarnath Gupta,et al.  Visual information retrieval , 1997, CACM.

[2]  Kent L. Norman,et al.  Development of an instrument measuring user satisfaction of the human-computer interface , 1988, CHI '88.

[3]  R. Bogdan.  Qualitative research for education , 1981 .

[4]  Shih-Fu Chang,et al.  Image Retrieval: Current Techniques, Promising Directions, and Open Issues , 1999, J. Vis. Commun. Image Represent..

[5]  Vijay V. Raghavan,et al.  Content-Based Image Retrieval Systems - Guest Editors' Introduction , 1995, Computer.

[6]  Debora Shaw,et al.  The Human-Computer Interface for Information Retrieval. , 1991 .

[7]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Chapter 4 – The Usability Engineering Lifecycle , 1993 .

[8]  Alberto Del Bimbo,et al.  Visual information retrieval , 1999 .

[9]  Margaret Graham,et al.  ARTISAN : a prototype retrieval system for trade mark images , 1997 .

[10]  Mikey Williams.  Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product and Process, by Deborah Hix and H. Rex Hartson, Wiley, 1993 (Book Review) , 1994, Softw. Test. Verification Reliab..

[11]  Michael McGill,et al.  Introduction to Modern Information Retrieval , 1983 .

[12]  H. Rex Hartson,et al.  Developing user interfaces: ensuring usability through product & process , 1993 .

[13]  Christos Faloutsos,et al.  QBIC project: querying images by content, using color, texture, and shape , 1993, Electronic Imaging.

[14]  S. Batley.  Visual information retrieval : browsing strategies in pictorial databases , 1988 .

[15]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Usability engineering , 1997, The Computer Science and Engineering Handbook.

[16]  Raya Fidel,et al.  Challenges in Indexing Electronic Text and Images , 1994 .