1. A Visual Browser for Large-Scale Online Auctions Quang Vinh Nguyen and Mao Lin Huang Faculty of Information Technology University of Technology, Sydney Australia

2. Presentation Outline Current navigation for product catalogs of online auctions The framework of visual online auction store Visual browser for online auction’s product catalogs Demonstration Conclusion

3. Current Navigation for Product Catalogs Product catalogs navigation Basic navigation: text-based browsing products Add-on navigation aids: customise to each user’s needs Search engineers, personalised recommendation, etc Multiple views of listings  ease the seeking of item of interest Limitation of the current navigation Mostly via text-based interface Work through several pages via URL links  time consume, perception problem, and cognitive overhead

4. The Framework of Visual Online Auction Store Store Products’ Information Content Management System Display, Navigate the Entire Product Catalog’s Hierarchy Show all the Appropriate Information of the Selected Product

5. Visual Browser for Online Auction Product Catalogs Layout: use ENCCON’s algorithm.  display the entire or a portion of product catalog Navigation/Browsing: use the semi- transparency focus+context technique.  navigate quickly and efficiently through the product catalog

6. Layout Nodes present the Online Auction objects’ information Online Auction Objects: categories, subcategories, auctioned items Edges present the relations of online auction objects Breath hierarchies: browse more effectively to the specific categories Single-only hierarchies: retain the consistency of the hierarchies

7. Layout (Cont) Product catalog’s layout: use a new Enclosure+Connection (ENCCON) algorithm Advantages: space efficiency, fast navigation, capability of handle very large amount of information Entire product catalogs of approximately 360 items

8. Navigation/Browsing Apply a new focus+context visualisation technique Display both detail-view and context-view using semi-transparency Detail-view: entire display area Context-view: smaller window at the background Only one view is active at a time  other view becomes semi-transparent

9. Navigation/Browsing (Cont) Enlarge to occupy the entire display area Reduce to smaller display area and become semi-transparent Focused sub-hierarchy

10. Display Property Use different colours for auctioned items, subcategories of each category Draw bold boundaries for categories and subcategories Highlight “new products” and “ending-today products”  find the special items more easily Provide menu for interactively adjusting the display

11. Display Property (Cont) Highlight the category when the mouse is over a category. Display information of the item when the mouse is over an auctioned item. Information: current bid price, starting data and closing date Show all information associated to the item when the mouse is double-clicked on an auctioned item.

12. Demonstration http://staff.it.uts.edu.au/~quvnguye/auction_vis/

13. Conclusion Present our information visualization component for viewing and browsing product catalog of online auctions Employ ENCCON’s layout algorithm and semi-transparent focus+context navigation Provide the visual aid for the fast and effective product navigation