Final Discussion Class

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Final Discussion Class

• User Interfaces

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Discussion Classes
Format Question Ask a member of the class to
answer Provide opportunity for others to
comment When answering Give your name. Make
sure that the TA hears it. Stand up Speak
clearly so that all the class can hear
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Question 1 Authors
The authors of this paper are Don Byrd W.
Bruce Croft Ben Shneiderman (a) Who are
they? (b) What biases would you expect them to
bring to the discussion?
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Question 2 Thomas
One of the examples is the Library of Congress's
Thomas system. (a) What is the purpose of this
system? Who are the users? (b) What is the
Congressional Record? Another example is the
Library of Congress's American Memory system. (c)
What is the purpose of this system? Who are the
users?
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Question 3 The four steps
Describe the following four steps. What are the
objectives of the step? What are the issues?
What are the options? (a) Formulation (b)
Action (c) Review of the Results (d) Refinement
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Question 4 User Interfaces
It is frequently recommended that there should be
separate user interfaces for different categories
of users. (a) What features might be
included? (b) What are the practical issues in
implementing such a choice?
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Question 5 Xinquery
(a) What is good about this user interface? (b)
What suggestions would you make to improve this
user interface?
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Question 6 WInquery
(a) What do the authors claim are the benefits of
this user interface? (b) Do you agree with them?
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Question 7 Success or Failure?
"Zero-hit outcomes occur on 30 of searches at
some services, ..." (a) Why do you think that
this happens? (b) Is it necessarily bad? (c)
What can be done to reduce the bad aspects?

"Every time I search, I get 10,000 hits ..." (d)
Why do you think that this happens? (e) Is it
necessarily bad? (f) What can be done to reduce
the bad aspects?