Connecting Interface Metaphors to Support Creation of Path-based Collections Unmil P. Karadkar, Andruid Kerne, Richard Furuta, Luis Francisco-Revilla, Frank Shipman, Jin Wang   Texas A&M University

Walden’s Paths Personal Collections as communicative artifacts for Digital Libraries VKB, Hunter Gatherer, Collector Linear collections are easiest to create, understand and present Walden’s Paths supports user-created Linear, annotated collections of Web-based materials

Walden’s Paths Server Content Frame Annotation Frame Control Frame

Path Authoring Process Locating promising Web pages Browsing and evaluating material at these sites Selecting information elements for use in the Path Locating promising Web pages Browsing and evaluating material at these sites Selecting information elements for use in the Path Developing an outline for the Path Adding the page URLs and annotations to the Path Making the Path accessible to the viewers

Walden’s PathAuthor Path outline Page outline Title Page list URL Annotation

Need for Alternative Mechanisms Characteristics of Web searching keyword-based searches return lists of links to Web pages that match keywords do not return pages that may use conceptually similar but syntactically different terms give little or no indication about “nearby” pages must visit every link to determine its relevance unit of browsing is a Web page static browsing metaphor Path creation authors’ understanding of their problem space is emergent often need to modify original search visiting links takes active effort and time

CollageMachine Operation Active browsing user seeding receives matched pages follows links retrieves page components evolving canvas Active browsing users need not interact

Participation in Collage Design Rollovers Author Participation in Collage building Author Participation in Collage building Emergent Behavior Mixed-Attention tool

Effect of Metaphor on Paths Created Web searches are not adequate by themselves Collage Machine offers an alternate metaphor with different features How does the search metaphor affect the path authoring task nature of the authored paths

User Study To understand the differences in expectations, processes and work practices when using different search metaphors Test users 7 individuals with at least one college degree teaching experience not familiar with CollageMachine some were familiar with Walden’s Paths use Web search engines frequently

User Study - Design Task No time restrictions on task (~3 hours) create 2 paths searching with Google or CollageMachine visually rich path topics for CollageMachine users no guidelines about length or nature of the paths No time restrictions on task (~3 hours) Training minimal training for CollageMachine users Help provided as requested Users managed display real estate

User Study - Design

User Study - Data Collection Instrumented tools Screen captures (Google) Observation Demographic and task questionnaires Free-form interviews

User Study – Observations Users displayed an active interest asked questions to clarify concepts, tasks and operation easily understood the concept of paths, path creation CollageMachine users quickly adjusted to new tools liked the grab tools some discovered rollovers requested additional features Context frustration with multiple elements from a Web page page view before adding it to the path

User Study – Observations User behavior CollageMachine like a Google result list indeterminacy or randomness? drag and drop semantics concerned about missing new elements unsure about finding a page again CollageMachine favors flexibility more suited for paths with fewer constraints

User Study – Reflections Users do not always understand processes involved in collection building need support for these processes use new tools to fit their mental models and existing work practices Collection building differs from searching information location intuitive, creative aspects practices shaped by tools and past experiences New tools must deal with expectations created by existing tools interface addressing the conceptual and usability issues reconcile user expectations with new features

Future Work Improve the tools User training over extended time reexamine action semantics (DnD) implement features requested by users provide richer tools to express user intention User training over extended time elicit collage-centric behaviors wider toolset to match mental model or task Explore cognitive aspects and processes in collection building CollageMachine as a pre-authoring explorer

Resources Walden’s Paths CollageMachine http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/walden/ Richard Furuta (furuta@csdl.tamu.edu) Frank Shipman (shipman@csdl.tamu.edu) CollageMachine http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/ecology/collageMachine/ Andruid Kerne (andruid@csdl.tamu.edu)

Walden’s Paths – Project Overview Walden’s Paths as a part of larger Digital Library (NSDL) Support for virtual directories Path Manager Web pages change frequently Monitor and report web page changes

Walden’s Paths Server Off-path traversal