1. Flamenco Image Browser: Using Metadata to Improve Image Search During Architectural Design Ame Elliott Group for User Interface Research (GUIR) & Dept. of Architecture University of California, Berkeley

2. Flamenco Image Browser2 Problem Statement Architects begin new projects by looking at images of prior projects How are elementary schools put together? What’s new in patio materials? Current image search interfaces are not helpful for image browsing in the early phase of design Rely on well-formulated textual queries Ignore context of architecture

3. Flamenco Image Browser3 Evaluation Prototyping Tools. Scope of the Project The Flamenco Image Browser is one customization of a toolkit for domain-specific search (the Flamenco projects) The Flamenco Image Browser is one component of my dissertation Understanding Architects’ Work Practices (ethnography, task analysis, interviews) Hardware: Digital Desk Software: Image Search UI QuantitativeQualitative

4. Flamenco Image Browser4 Evaluation Prototyping Tools. Scope of the Project The Flamenco Image Browser is one customization of a toolkit for domain-specific search (the Flamenco projects) The Flamenco Image Browser is one component of my dissertation Understanding Architects’ Work Practices (ethnography, task analysis, interviews) Hardware: Digital Desk Software: Image Search UI QuantitativeQualitative

5. Flamenco Image Browser5 Interface to a collection of architectural images using metadata about the images to support search Metadata about the images provides Query previews giving hints about possible next actions Ways of broadening or refining search terms

6. Flamenco Image Browser6 Why Use Metadata? Open questions about its utility How to use metadata not well understood Not an obvious thing to do for images Contrasts with automated content analysis Defies conventional wisdom If a picture is worth 1,000 words, let the pictures speak for themselves Professional architects have different needs than curators The thumbnail is the whole document, not like text search using a title to stand in for a long article

7. Flamenco Image Browser7 Faceted Metadata Planalto Palace Parti Communiste Francais Pantheon Oscar Neimeyer Oscar Neimeyer Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot 20 th Century 20 th Century 17 th & 18 th C. Brasilia Paris Paris Stone Curvilinear Stone Image: Architect: Period: Location: Concept:

8. Flamenco Image Browser8 Planalto Palace Parti Communiste Francais Pantheon Oscar Neimeyer Oscar Neimeyer Jaques-Gabriel Soufflot 20 th Century 20 th Century 17 th & 18 th C. Brasilia Paris Paris Stone Curvilinear Stone Image: Architect: Period: Location: Concept: Faceted Metadata

9. Flamenco Image Browser9 Evaluation Methodology Solicit feedback from architects to determine if faceted metadata is helpful and how to present it Not evaluating if the current metadata in the system is the right metadata Lo-Fi evaluation of paper prototype 1 hour one-on-one with 3 professional architects Walk-through interactions on a paper computer, users think- aloud (audio recorded), questions about the experience Informal study of live version 1 hour one-on-one with 9 architects /grad students, 2 tasks (audio recorded) and a survey

11. 734 images of France in the entire collection 100 images of France in the 1,000 results for stone

12. Flamenco Image Browser12 Results of Lo-Fi Study The difference between searching within results and changing to a new search confused users The “breadcrumb” did not help users orient themselves when browsing results Home >> Gehry, Frank >> Berlin Home >> Berlin Users were surprised at the outcome and could not anticipate which they were getting (refine or expand). Image search is exploratory, not reductive Specific textual queries not important “If I knew what I wanted to type in the box I’d just go get it myself.” Expanding search more important than refining is different than

13. Flamenco Image Browser13 Make iterative changes to the alternatives to identify useful aspects of the UI – not statistical analysis Learn to what extent the metadata is useful for searching How much text is too much? What kinds of queries will the users do? Explore how to clarify searching within results vs. starting a new search Goals for Study of Live Web Site

14. Flamenco Image Browser14 Informal Study of Live Version Comparison- a form-based UI to the same collection of images Task 1 – Free form search Participants told they are helping to test an image search engine Asked to talk about a project they’re working on and something they’d like to find Let them go at it and try to find images they’re interested in – they can ask any questions they want but no formal instructions given Task 2 – Treasure hunt Participants given paper copies of 3 images (but no metadata) and told to find them (range from easy to hard) Exit survey

17. Flamenco Image Browser17 About the System Web browser used to view Cold Fusion generated pages, queries made to a mySQL database 36,000 images from the UC Berkeley Architecture Slide library 5 facets of metadata about each image Image title, architect, period, location, and concept Shallow hierarchy for results in architect, period, and location Concept facet is from the Getty Art and Architecture thesaurus - a 40,000 term hierarchical thesaurus of descriptors of the built environment – this hierarchy not tested in the live version Building Materials Masonry Finishing Materials Stonework Brickwork Shingles

18. Flamenco Image Browser18 Results: Metadata is Helpful Very positive feedback about Flamenco All 9 participants named the metadata in the search results area as their favorite aspect of Flamenco Metadata was successful at giving hints about where to go next Perceived as useful “These are places I can go from here.”

19. Flamenco Image Browser19 Results: More Metadata Please Participants asked for more metadata Although there were complaints about the contents of the metadata, users still wanted more Longer lists of options (more hints) Users wanted more control to make very specific searches Half the participants requested the ability to control order of results with metadata Juxtapose visible images 2 different ways: Overview (one image from each project) vs. like together ( all images of a project next to each other) Different than ranking for text retrieval (precision, recall), but ordering does matter

20. Flamenco Image Browser20 Results: Complaints The UI was not successful at clarifying searching within results vs. starting a new search Only 2 of the 9 participants understood the distinction without discussion – but they want to do both The 1/3 of the participants who couldn’t find a treasure hunt image felt that Flamenco was slow Corroborates findings that perceived system speed is about finding what you want (Spool ‘00)

21. Flamenco Image Browser21 Enthusiasm for Metadata Contradicted my suspicions that a sledgehammer and pick- through-the-rubble approach would be preferable No-one thought there was too much text Adding more text preferable to adding another row of images

22. Flamenco Image Browser22 Conclusions Metadata is useful for exploratory tasks Good at giving hints about where to go next Architects want to use metadata to get more control Of results display Build complex queries Sometimes the right word is worth more than many pictures

23. Flamenco Image Browser23 Contributions Increase understanding of what makes a good search interface Provide insights about how image search differs from text search

24. Flamenco Image Browser24 Acknowledgements Thanks to Marti Hearst my advisor Andy Edmonds for excellent coding Andy Chou for help with the database the Berkeley Museum Informatics Project for access to the image collection the Flamenco project team for search ideas and the members of GUIR for helpful feedback

25. Thanks!

26. Flamenco Image Browser26

29. Flamenco Image Browser29 Related Work “Berrypicking” model of information seeking (Bates) Information scent (Pirolli) Query previews (Plaisant & Shneiderman et al) QBIC & Blobworld (content analysis)

30. Flamenco Image Browser30 Architects’ Image Use Practices Architects rely on personal image collections and libraries of print media Images emerge as relevant due to their juxtaposition with other images