Title: Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted Metadata
1Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted
Metadata
- Prof. Marti Hearst
- University of California, Berkeley
- Search Engines Meeting, April 2002
- Research funded by
- NSF CAREER Grant, NSF IIS-9984741
2The Flamenco Project Team
- Ame Elliott
- Jennifer English
- Marti Hearst
- Rashmi Sinha
- Kirsten Swearingen
- Ping Yee
- http//bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco.html
3Motivation
- Web search works well now
- Gets people to the appropriate web sites
- Finds starting points
- Web SITE search is NOT ok
- Results still overwhelming
- Not well-integrated with the information
architecture - People prefer to follow links anyhow
4Recent Study by Vividence Research
- Spring 2001, 69 web sites
- 70 eCommerce
- 31 Service
- 21 Content
- 2 Community
- The most common problems
- 53 had poorly organized search results
- 32 had poor information architecture
- 32 had slow performance
- 27 had cluttered home pages
- 25 had confusing labels
- 15 invasive registration
- 13 inconsistent navigation
5Following Hyperlinks
- Works great when it is clear where to go next
- Frustrating when the desired directions are
undetectable or unavailable
Free Text Search
- Can specify anything
- Can result in a disorganized mess
6An Analogy
hypertext
Wanted An All TerTrain Vehicle!
7Main Idea
- Integrate the search seamlessly into the
information architecture - Use hierarchical metadata to
- Allow flexible navigation
- Provide query previews
- Organize search results
- Both expand and refine the search
8The Challenges
- Users dont like new search interfaces
- How to show lots more information without
overwhelming or confusing?
9Main Idea
- Use 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
10An Important Trend in Information Architecture
Design
- Generating web pages from databases
- Implications
- Web sites can adapt to user actions
- Web sites can be instrumented
11A Taxonomy of WebSites
high
Complexity of Data
low
low
high
Complexity of Applications
From The (Short) Araneus Guide to Website
development, by Mecca, et al, Proceedings of
WebDB99, http//www-rocq.inria.fr/cluet/WEBDB/pr
ocwebdb99.html
12Faceted Metadata
13Metadata data about dataFacets orthogonal
categories
14Faceted Metadata Biomedical MeSH (Medical
Subject Headings)www.nlm.nih.org/mesh
15Mesh Facets (one level expanded)
16Questions we are trying to answer
- How many facets are allowable?
- Should facets be mixed and matched?
- How much is too much?
- Should hierarchies be progressively revealed,
tabbed, some combination? - How should free-text search be integrated?
17How NOT to do it
- Yahoo uses faceted metadata poorly in both their
search results and in their top-level directory - They combine region other hierarchical facets
in awkward ways
18Yahoos use of facets
19Yahoos use of facets
20Yahoos use of facets
21Yahoos use of facets
- Where is Berkeley?
- College and University gt Colleges and
Universities gtUnited States gt U gt University of
California gt Campuses gt Berkeley - U.S. States gt California gt Cities gtBerkeley gt
Education gt College and University gt Public gt UC
Berkeley
22Problem with Metadata Previews as Currently Used
- Hand edited, predefined
- Not tailored to task as it develops
- Not personalized
- Often not systematically integrated with search,
or within the information architecture in general
23Recipe Collection Examples
24From soar.berkeley.edu (a poor example)
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26From www.epicurious.com (a good example)
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30Epicurious Metadata Usage
- Advantages
- Creates combinations of metadata on the fly
- Different metadata choices show the same
information in different ways - Previews show how many recipes will result
- Easy to back up
- Supports several task types
- Help me find a summer pasta,'' (ingredient type
event type), - How can I use an avocado in a salad?''
(ingredient type dish type), - How can I bake sea-bass'' (preparation type
ingredient type)
31Metadata usage in Epicurious
Recipe
32Metadata usage in Epicurious
33Metadata usage in Epicurious
34Metadata usage in Epicurious
gt
I
35Metadata usage in Epicurious
gt
I
Select
Prepare
Cuisine
I
36Recipe Information Architecture
- Information design
- Recipes have five types of metadata categories
- Cuisine, Preparation, Ingredients, Dish, Occasion
- Each category has one level of subcategories
37Recipe Information Architecture
- Navigation design
- Home page
- show top level of all categories
- Other pages
- A link on an attribute ANDS that attribute to the
current query results are shown according to a
category that is not yet part of the query - A change-view link does not change the query, but
does change which categorys metadata organizes
the results
38Epicurious Basic Search
- Lacks integration with metadata
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40Epicurious Usability Study
- People liked the browsing-style metadata-based
search and found it helpful - People sometimes preferred the advanced search
- For more constrained tasks
- But zero results are frustrating
- People dissprefer the standard simple search
41Missing From Epicurious
- How to scale?
- Hierarchical facets
- Larger collection
- How to integrate search?
- How to allow expansion in addition to refinement?
42Metadata Interface for Image Search
43Current Approaches to Image Search
- Visual Content and Cues, e.g.,
- QBIC (Flickner et al. 95)
- Blobworld (Carson et al. 99)
- Body Plans (Forsyth Fleck 00)
- Color, texture, shape
- Move through a similarity space
- Keyword based
- Piction (Srihari 91)
- WebSeek (Smith and Jain 97)
- Google image search
44Architects and City Planners
- Common activitie
- Use images for inspiration
- Browsing during early stages of design
- Collage making, sketching, pinning up on walls
- This is different than illustrating powerpoint
- Maintain sketchbooks shoeboxes of images
- Young professionals have 500, older 5k
- No formal organization scheme
- None of 10 architects interviewed about their
image collections used indexes - Do not like to use computers to find images
45The Collection
- 40,000 images from the UCB architecture slide
library - The current database and interface is called
SPIRO - Very rich, faceted, hierarchical metadata
46Architects Image Use
- Common activitie
- Use images for inspiration
- Browsing during early stages of design
- Collage making, sketching, pinning up on walls
- This is different than illustrating powerpoint
- Maintain sketchbooks shoeboxes of images
- Young professionals have 500, older 5k
- No formal organization scheme
- None of 10 architects interviewed about their
image collections used indexes - Do not like to use computers to find images
47Development Timeline
- Needs assessment.
- Interviewed architects and conducted contextual
inquiries. - Lo-fi prototyping.
- Showed paper prototype to 3 professional
architects. - Design / Study Round 1.
- Simple interactive version. Users liked metadata
idea. - Design / Study Round 2
- Developed 4 different detailed versions
evaluated with 11 architects results somewhat
positive but many problems identified. Matrix
emerged as a good idea. - Metadata revision.
- Compressed and simplified the metadata
hierarchies - Design / Study Round 3.
- New version based on results of Round 2
- Highly positive user response
48The Interface
- Nine hierarchical facets
- Matrix
- SingleTree
- Chess metaphor
- Opening
- Middlegame
- Endgame
- Tightly Integrated Search
- Expand as well as Refine
- Intermediate pages for large categories
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57Usability Study on Round 3
- 19 participants
- Architecture/City Planning background
- Two versions of the interface
- Tree (one hierarchical facet at a time)
- Matrix (multiple hierarchical facets)
- Several tasks
- Subjective responses
- All highly positive
- Very strong desire to use the interface in future
- Will replace the current SPIRO interface
58Study Tasks
- High Constraint Search
- Find images with metadata assigned from 3 facets
- (e.g., exterior views of temples in Lebanon)
- 1.1)Â Â Â Â Â Â Start by using a Keyword Search
- 1.2)Â Â Â Â Â Â Start by Browsing (clicking a
hyperlink) 1.3)Â Â Â Â Â Â Start by using method of
choice - Low Constraint Search
- Find a low-constraint set of images (metadata in
one facet) - Specific Image Search
- Given a photograph and no other info, find the
same image in the collection - Browse for Images of Interest
59Interface Evaluation
- Users rated Matrix more highly for
- Usefulness for design work
- Seeing relationships between images
- Flexibility
- Power
- On all except find this image task, users also
rated the Matrix higher for - Feeling on track during search
- Feeling confident about having found all relevant
images
60Overall Preferences Matrix vs. Tree
61User Comments - Matrix
- Easier to pursue other queries from each
individual page - Powerful at limiting and expanding result sets.
Easy to shift between searches. - Keep better track of where I am located as well
as possible places to go from there. - Left margin menu made it easy to view other
possible search queries, helped in
trouble-shooting research problems. - Interface was friendlier, easier, more helpful.
- I understood the hierarchical relationships
better.
62User Comments Tree
- Pro
- Simple
- More typical of other search engines Id use
- Visually simpler and more intuitiveMatrix a bit
overwhelming with choices. - Con
- I found SingleTree difficult to use when I had
to refine my search on a search topic which I was
not familiar with. I found myself guessing. - SingleTree required more thought to use and to
find specific images. - I do not trust my typng and spelling skills. I
like having categories.
63Task Completion Times
(Find Image is an artificial task given a photo
and no other info, find it in the collection.)
64When Given A Choice
- For each interface, one task allowed the user to
start with either a keyword search or the
hyperlinks. - 3 chose to search in both interfaces
- 11 chose to browse in both interfaces
- 4 chose to search in Matrix, browse in Tree
- 1 chose to browse in Matrix, search in Tree
65Feature Usage () Refining
66Feature Usage Expanding / Starting Over
67Feature Usage () Types of Actions
68Interface Evaluation
- Users rated Matrix more highly for
- Usefulness for design work
- Seeing relationships between images
- Flexibility
- Power
- On all except find this image task, users also
rated the Matrix higher for - Feeling on track during search
- Feeling confident about having found all relevant
images
69Application to Medline
70Summary and Conclusions
71Summary
- Two Usability Studies Completed
- Recipes 13,000 items
- Architecture Images 40,000 items
- Conclusions
- Users like and are successful with the dynamic
faceted hierarchical metadata, especially for
browsing tasks - Very positive results, in contrast with studies
on earlier iterations - Note it seems you have to care about the
contents of the collection to like the interface
72Summary
- Validating an approach to web site search
- Use hierarchical faceted metadata dynamically,
integrated with search - Many difficult design decisions
- Iterating and testing was key
- Bits and pieces were there in industry
- The approach is being picked up too
- One is very similar now endeca.com
73Summary
- We have addressed several interface problems
- How to seamlessly integrate metadata previews
with search - Show search results in metadata context
- Disambiguate search terms
- How to show hierarchical metadata from several
facets - The matrix view
- Show one level of depth in the matrix view
- How to handle large metadata categories
- Use intermediate pages
- How to support expanding as well as refining
- Still working on it to some extent
74Advantages of the Approach
- Supports different search types
- Highly constrained known-item searches
- Open-ended, browsing tasks
- Can easily switch from one mode to the other
midstream - Can both expand and refine
- Allows different people to add content without
breaking things - Can make use of standard technology
75Some Unanswered Questions
- How to integrate with relevance feedback (more
like this)? - Would like to use blobworld-like features
- How to incorporate user preferences and past
behavior? - How to combine facets to reflect tasks?
76Thank you!
For more information
- bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco.html