Incorporating Metadata into Search UIs Marti Hearst and Ame Elliott GUIR Summer 2000

Outline What’s wrong with search? The Simplicity / Flexibility tradeoff Task-oriented specialization Vortals Metadata-based Previews

What’s right with (Web) search? Easy to get to site home pages Automatic category suggestion Disambiguates terms Isolates home pages of sites Suggests related information

What’s wrong with (Web) search? Too many results Wrong meanings for words Difficult to express complex ideas / goals Doesn’t help on the sites themselves Doesn’t answer questions Find campsite availability at a particular park Pros and cons of tamoxifen for cancer treatment Find a perfect wooden chest for your niece’s bedroom Find prior art for this patented idea Find a good opthamologist in your area

The future of search: A Dichotomy Information Intensive Business analysis Scientific research Planning & design Quick lookup Question answering Location-based info Restaurants Local history

Next generation search interfaces More specialized in terms of Tasks Collections Interfaces Improved Technologies Question-answering Categorization Information previews

The Simplicity / Flexibility Tradeoff wizard hyperlinks text search

Variations in Flexibility Choice of operators/ combinations Choice of input values hypertext standard GUI spreadsheet standard search wizard

Flexibility Differences Standard GUIs Many operations Restricted order of operations Task-centric Completion matters Hypertext One operation (link) Operation order unrestricted Information-centric No natural stopping point

Spreadsheets Highly flexible Several operators Many orders to use & combine them in What gets used?(Nardi 93) Most people learn a very limited subset of operations, use these in stereotyped ways Most groups depend on local experts

Standard Search Few operators (less flexible) Many many input values (more flexible)

How to Control Flexibility? Focus on the task.

The Importance of the Task Results from HCI suggest the importance of taking the task into account. Searching patent databases  Proving non-infringement Browsing newsgroups  Finding the denial-of-service hacker Getting all satellite news  Anticipating the competition

The Importance of the Task Example: How does Web page download time effect usability? In one study, Spool found: (56kbit modem) Amazon: 36 sec/page (avg) About.com: 8 sec/page (avg) Users rated the sites: Fastest: Amazon Slowest: About.com Why?

The Importance of the Task Perceived speed Strong correlation between perceived speed and whether the users felt they completed their task Strong correlation between perceived speed and whether the users felt they always knew what to do next (scent).

How to Incorporate the Task? Goal: Look at a work practice. Restrict the search method to support this task. Two Mechanisms using Metadata Restrict collection: Vortals Restrict suggested next steps: Previews

Metadata types Time/DateTopicRoleGeoRegion 

Restrict the Collection: Vortals

As Web Grows, Search Degrades Solution: Specialize the collection (Vortal = Vertical Portal) Reduces ambiguity of query word usage Eliminates irrelevant information in advance Allows for customization / personalization Vortal Example: FindLaw A vertical slice through legal text

WWW Industry Intranet Desktop Cascading priority based on locality of information

WWWIndustryIntranetDesktop Specific slice through the data: analyst vs salesperson, or legal vs. medical

WWWIndustryIntranetDesktop Slice again based on task, e.g., research vs reporting

A simpler example (FindLaw) Only one topic – law Many different legal sources

Slicing by Topic Only Generic search interface not enough No support for legal tasks Find prior art for patent infringement case Find weaknesses in the application of intellectual property law in the 6 th circuit court of appeals

Rather than search as usual across an intersection of metadata types … Information Previews: where to go next

Task-Specific Preview Combinations A Simple Example Yahoo restaurant guide combines: Region Topic (restaurants) + Attributes (cuisine) Related Information Other attributes (ratings) Other topics related in place and time (movies)

Green: restaurants & attributes Red: related in place & time Yellow: geographic region

Combining Information Types Region State City A & E Film Theatre Music Restaurants California Eclectic Indian French Assumed task: looking for evening entertainment

Other Possible Combinations Region + A&E City + Restaurant + Movies City + Weather City + Education: Schools Restaurants + Schools …

Bookstore preview combinations topic + related topics topic + publications by same author topic + books of same type but related topic

Pre-defined Sources Decide in advance which collections to show results from Places search results in context Problem: the same metadata is used for all queries

Information previews Use the metadata to show where to go next More flexible than canned hyperlinks Less complex than full search Help users see and return to what happened previously Reduces mental work Recognition over recall Suggest alternatives

The Importance of Informative Previews Jared Spool’s studies ( More clicks are ok if The “scent” of the target does not weaken If users feel they are going towards, rather than away, from their target.

The Importance of Informative Previews How to indicate “scent”? Information organization reflects tasks Longer, more descriptive links Show category subtopic information Breadth vs. depth tradeoffs CNN categories (more scrolling) vs. Yahoo’s (more clicking) Menu studies Larson & Czerwinski study Intermediate breadth vs. depth generally best

Problem with Previews Standard approaches Hand edited, predefined Not tailored to task as it develops Not personalized Not dynamic

A new project: FLAMENCO FLexible Access using MEtadata in Novel COmbinations Main idea: Preview and postview information Determined dynamically and (semi) automatically, based on current task

Flamenco: Dynamic Previews Medical example Allow user to select metadata in any order At each step, show different types of relevant metadata, based on prior steps and personal history, include # of documents Previews restricted to only those metadata types that might be helpful

Asthma > Steroids 1.A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. 2.Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate. 1.A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. 2.Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate. Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (5) Prednisone (5) Pregnenes Budesonide (4) Corticosterone (3) Other Views Admin & Dosage (50) Drug Effects (20 Therapeutic Use (25) Risk Factors (4) More … User Preferred Musculoskeletal (4) Drug Resistance (6) All Categories (99) 99 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Steroids] [Cluster] 1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children. 2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children. … 1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children. 2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children. …

Asthma > Steroids > Admin & Dosage 1.Dosage levels for asthmatic steroids: A survey. Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (3) Prednisone (5) Related Categories Inhalators (40) Emotional Effects (25) Preferred Suppliers (30) User Preferred Musculoskeletal (0) Drug Resistance (2) All Categories (50) 50 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Dosage] [Cluster] 1. Optimal dosage levels for prednisone in the treatment of childhood asthma. 2. … 1. Optimal dosage levels for prednisone in the treatment of childhood asthma. 2. …

Other paths: back up and go forward Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide > Huang Asthma > Huang > Budesonide Asthma > Steroids Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide

Another Application Finding images for design tasks See Ame’s talk

Dynamic Metadata Previews How different from Yahoo & Amazon? Dynamically determine what to show next Yahoo’s combos are predefined Amazon’s are also predefined, and limited to taste and general topic only A way to seamlessly integrate Related topics User preferences (personalization) Context-sensitivity

Evaluation Methodology Regression Test Select a set of tasks Use these throughout the evaluation Start with a baseline system Evaluate using the test tasks Add a feature Evaluation again Compare to baseline Only retain those changes that improve results

Project Goals Develop a general understanding of how to usefully incorporate metadata into the search process Developed user-validated methodology that can be extended to other domains.

Summary Standard search is too flexible Hyperlinks are too restrictive Task-centric approaches Task-specific collections Flamenco: Showing next choices / previews Issues How to identify tasks? Given lots of task-specific UIs, how to find the right one?