FacetBrowser: a user interface for complex search tasks

  • Authors:

  • Robert Villa;Nicholas Gildea;Joemon M. Jose

  • Affiliations:

  • Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland UK;Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland UK;Glasgow University, Glasgow, Scotland UK

  • Venue:
  • MM '08 Proceedings of the 16th ACM international conference on Multimedia
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

With the rapid increase in online video services, multimedia retrieval systems are becoming increasingly important search tools to users in many different fields. In this paper we present a novel retrieval interface, "FacetBrowser", which supports the creation of multiple search "facets", to aid users carrying out complex search tasks involving multiple concepts. Each facet represents a different aspect of the search task: an assumption of this work is that search facets are best represented by sub-searches, providing users with flexibility in defining facets on the fly, rather than using pre-defined categories or metadata information as used in many other exploratory search interfaces [3, 8, 17]. Such facets can be organised into "stories" by users, facilitating users in building up sequences of related searches and material which together can be used to satisfy a work task. The interface allows more than one search to be executed and viewed simultaneously, and importantly, allows material to be reorganized between the facets, acknowledging the inter-relatedness which can often occur between search facets. The design of the FacetBrowser interface is presented, along with an experiment comparing it to a tabbed interface similar to that on modern web browsers. The results suggest that the FacetBrowser has the potential to aid users in exploring and structuring their searching effort when carrying out broad search tasks.