The future is in the past: designing for exploratory search

Exploratory search activities tend to span multiple sessions and involve finding, analyzing and evaluating information found through many queries. Typical search systems, on the other hand, are designed to support single query, precision-oriented search tasks. We describe a search interface and system design of a multi-session exploratory search system, discuss design challenges encountered, and chronicle the evolution of our design. Our design describes novel displays for visualizing retrieval history information, and introduces ambient displays and persuasive elements to interactive information retrieval.

[1]  Krishna Bharat.  SearchPad: explicit capture of search context to support Web search , 2000, Comput. Networks.

[2]  Matthew Cooper,et al.  Reverted indexing for feedback and expansion , 2010, CIKM.

[3]  N. Tractinsky,et al.  What is beautiful is usable , 2000, Interact. Comput..

[4]  Abigail Sellen,et al.  How knowledge workers use the web , 2002, CHI.

[5]  J. Zittrain.  The Future of the Internet , 2008 .

[6]  David M. Nichols,et al.  Designing interfaces to support collaboration in information retrieval , 1998, Interact. Comput..

[7]  Robin Ss.  Is there a difference , 1967 .

[8]  Robert G. Capra,et al.  Tools-at-hand and learning in multi-session, collaborative search , 2010, CHI.

[9]  N. Carr.  Is Google Making Us Stupid? , 2008, The Best Technology Writing 2009.

[10]  John Domingue,et al.  The Future of the Internet , 1999, Academia Letters.

[11]  Ryen W. White,et al.  Exploratory Search: Beyond the Query-Response Paradigm , 2009, Exploratory Search: Beyond the Query-Response Paradigm.

[12]  Gabriella Kazai,et al.  Towards a science of user engagement. , 2011 .

[13]  Anastasios A. Economides,et al.  Toward Computer-Aided Affective Learning Systems: A Literature Review , 2008 .

[14]  James Allan,et al.  The effect of adding relevance information in a relevance feedback environment , 1994, SIGIR '94.

[15]  Bonnie MacKay,et al.  Exploring multi-session web tasks , 2008, CHI.

[16]  David Mease,et al.  Measuring improvement in user search performance resulting from optimal search tips , 2011, SIGIR '11.

[17]  Gene Golovchinsky,et al.  Queries? Links? Is there a difference? , 1997, CHI.

[18]  Dan Morris,et al.  SearchBar: a search-centric web history for task resumption and information re-finding , 2008, CHI.

[19]  Ed H. Chi,et al.  An elaborated model of social search , 2010, Inf. Process. Manag..

[20]  T. Bickmore.  Relational agents : effecting change through human-computer relationships , 2003 .

[21]  Heinz Ulrich Hoppe,et al.  C-TORI: An Interface for Cooperative Database Retrieval , 1994, DEXA.

[22]  Kari-Jouko Räihä,et al.  The advantages of a cross-session web workspace , 2005, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[23]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  The Turn - Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context , 2005, The Kluwer International Series on Information Retrieval.

[24]  Ryen W. White,et al.  The search dashboard: how reflection and comparison impact search behavior , 2012, CHI.

[25]  Gary Marchionini,et al.  Exploratory search , 2006, Commun. ACM.

[26]  Jeremy Pickens,et al.  Interactive information seeking via selective application of contextual knowledge , 2010, IIiX.

[27]  Mika Käki,et al.  Information search and re-access strategies of experienced web users , 2005, WWW '05.

[28]  Peter Brusilovsky,et al.  Investigating Users' Needs and Behavior for Social Search , 2005 .

[29]  Marcia J. Bates,et al.  The design of browsing and berrypicking techniques for the online search interface , 1989 .

[30]  B. J. Fogg,et al.  Persuasive technology: using computers to change what we think and do , 2002, UBIQ.

[31]  Meredith Ringel Morris,et al.  A survey of collaborative web search practices , 2008, CHI.

[32]  Brian P. Bailey,et al.  If not now, when?: the effects of interruption at different moments within task execution , 2004, CHI.