Evaluating a Visual Information Retrieval Interface: AspInquery at TREC-6
Abstract
We built two Information Retrieval systems that were targeted for the TREC-6 "aspect oriented" retrieval track. The systems were built to test the usefulness of different visualizations in an interactive IR setting--in particular, an "aspect window" for the chosen task, and a 3-D visualization of document inter-relationships. We studied 24 users of the system and report the usage of different user interface elements, whether experienced users outperformed novices, and whether spatial reasoning ability was a good predictor of effective use of 3-D. Much if not most usage of Information Retrieval (IR) is in an interactive setting, where an individual must use an IR system to obtain information that they need. But historically, most IR evaluations are based on comparing batch mode runs of IR systems on fixed corpora and measuring precision (the percentage of documents that are retrieved that are relevant) and recall (the percentage of relevant documents that are retrieved). IR systems were expensive and used primarily by trained professionals for a very specific task. With the explosion of information available, information retrieval, exploration and organization are becoming tasks that users of very diverse backgrounds are required to perform.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA439396
Entities
People
- Don Byrd
- James Allan
- Russell Swan
Organizations
- University of Massachusetts Amherst