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Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted Metadata

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Title: Flexible Search and Navigation using Faceted Metadata


1
Flexible 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

2
The Flamenco Project Team
  • Ame Elliott
  • Jennifer English
  • Marti Hearst
  • Rashmi Sinha
  • Kirsten Swearingen
  • Ping Yee
  • http//bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco.html

3
Motivation
  • 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

4
Recent 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

5
Following 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

6
An Analogy
hypertext
Wanted An All TerTrain Vehicle!
7
Main 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

8
The Challenges
  • Users dont like new search interfaces
  • How to show lots more information without
    overwhelming or confusing?

9
Main 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

10
An Important Trend in Information Architecture
Design
  • Generating web pages from databases
  • Implications
  • Web sites can adapt to user actions
  • Web sites can be instrumented

11
A 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
12
Faceted Metadata
13
Metadata data about dataFacets orthogonal
categories
14
Faceted Metadata Biomedical MeSH (Medical
Subject Headings)www.nlm.nih.org/mesh
15
Mesh Facets (one level expanded)
16
Questions 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?

17
How 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

18
Yahoos use of facets
19
Yahoos use of facets
20
Yahoos use of facets
21
Yahoos 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

22
Problem 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

23
Recipe Collection Examples
24
From soar.berkeley.edu (a poor example)
25
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26
From www.epicurious.com (a good example)
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30
Epicurious 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)

31
Metadata usage in Epicurious
Recipe
32
Metadata usage in Epicurious
33
Metadata usage in Epicurious
34
Metadata usage in Epicurious
gt
I
35
Metadata usage in Epicurious
gt
I
Select
Prepare
Cuisine
I
36
Recipe Information Architecture
  • Information design
  • Recipes have five types of metadata categories
  • Cuisine, Preparation, Ingredients, Dish, Occasion
  • Each category has one level of subcategories

37
Recipe 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

38
Epicurious Basic Search
  • Lacks integration with metadata

39
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40
Epicurious 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

41
Missing From Epicurious
  • How to scale?
  • Hierarchical facets
  • Larger collection
  • How to integrate search?
  • How to allow expansion in addition to refinement?

42
Metadata Interface for Image Search
43
Current 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

44
Architects 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

45
The Collection
  • 40,000 images from the UCB architecture slide
    library
  • The current database and interface is called
    SPIRO
  • Very rich, faceted, hierarchical metadata

46
Architects 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

47
Development 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

48
The Interface
  • Nine hierarchical facets
  • Matrix
  • SingleTree
  • Chess metaphor
  • Opening
  • Middlegame
  • Endgame
  • Tightly Integrated Search
  • Expand as well as Refine
  • Intermediate pages for large categories

49
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57
Usability 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

58
Study Tasks
  • High Constraint Search
  • Find images with metadata assigned from 3 facets
  • (e.g., exterior views of temples in Lebanon)
  • 1.1)       Start by using a Keyword Search
  • 1.2)       Start by Browsing (clicking a
    hyperlink) 1.3)       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

59
Interface 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

60
Overall Preferences Matrix vs. Tree
61
User 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.

62
User 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.

63
Task Completion Times
(Find Image is an artificial task given a photo
and no other info, find it in the collection.)
64
When 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

65
Feature Usage () Refining
66
Feature Usage Expanding / Starting Over
67
Feature Usage () Types of Actions
68
Interface 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

69
Application to Medline
70
Summary and Conclusions
71
Summary
  • 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

72
Summary
  • 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

73
Summary
  • 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

74
Advantages 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

75
Some 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?

76
Thank you!
For more information
  • bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco.html
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