Information search

Information search

• Search User Interfaces (SUIs) represent the gateway between people who have a task to complete, and the database of information and data stored around the world.

• The ability to perform search requests in business data is an important as set of any information system.

• To be accepted by its users, an information system needs a front-end user interface that reduces the complexity of the back-end search facilities.

Information search

• A modern information system typically is connected to data sources that store a huge amount of structured data.

• The data must be easily accessible to the users of the information system.

• It is therefore important to provide searching system that are both power ful and easy to use.

Information search

• The user interface of an information system has to support searching.

• Many search interfaces require technical knowledge about the back-end search facilities

• Cannot assume that all users understand the fundamentals of information retrieval and know the capabilities and restrictions of the back-end search facilities.

• However, the user interface for searching must be suitable for all user.

Information search

• should not require the users to learn a technical search language like SQL

• provides GUI elements to control all features of the backend search engine

• For example, typical GUI elements let the users set the sort order and the maximum number of results

Information search

• Most users do not know the fundamentals of Boolean algebra such as the precedences of ands or ors in Boolean expressions.

• Support a syntax for entering search phrases as it is provided by many Internet search engines (“+term1 -term2”).

• Provide GUI elements to let the users control the interpretation of a search phrase.

• If some expert users need advanced search capabilities, provide Simple and Expert Search Dialog

Information search

• Provide a search dialog whose appearance is static, i.e. the dialog contains a fixed number of search fields whose positions on the dialog do not change.

• A static search dialog provides an individual search field .

• Additional GUI elements allow the users to specify search settings.

Visualization

Visualization

• Visualization is a technique for creating images, diagrams or animations to communicate a message.

• Visualization through visual image has been an effective way to communicate concrete ideas

• It offers a method for seeing the unseen

Visualization

• Issues • Does the full set of data get displayed ?• Does the translation to the selected coordinate

system have an impact on accuracy?• Data distortion.• Poor selection of axes scales can lead to

distortion.• Coordinate rotation and tilting can also cause

distortion.

Visualization

• Visualization for data input.• • What kind of graphics (icons, arrows, callouts)

can help during data input?• Dynamic visualization during processing.• • What kind of visual feedback (progress bar,

spinning cursor) could a user get while data is being processed by the model?

Visualization

• Visual presentation such as map or photograph is easier to use or communicate than text description

• As computer speed and display resolution increases, information visualization and graphical interfaces are likely to have expanded

• Visual display become more attractive to provide orientation context , to enable selection of region, to provide dynamic feedback

Visualization

Hypermedia

Hypermedia

• Linear text:- which is read sequentially from beginning to end

• Book reading• Hypertext:- nonlinear: it is comprised of many

interlinked chunks of self-contained text.• Readers are not bound to a particular sequence, • HyperMedia is not constrained to be text-based.

It can include other media, e.g., graphics, images, and especially the continuous media - sound and video

Hypermedia• Hypermedia is the generalization of hypertext to include

other kinds of media: images, audio clips and video clips are typically supported in addition to text.

• Individual chunks of information are usually referred to as documents or nodes, and the connections between them as links or hyperlinks the so-called node-link hypermedia model.

• The entire set of nodes and links forms a graph network. • A distinct set of nodes and links which constitutes a

logical entity or work is called a hyperdocument; • a distinct subset of hyperlinks is often called a hyperweb.

Hypermedia• A source anchor is the starting point of a hyperlink and specifies

the part of a document from which an outgoing link can be activated.

• Typically, the user is given visual cues as to where source anchors are located in a document (for example, a highlighted phrase in a text document).

• A destination anchor is the endpoint of a hyperlink and determines what part of a document should be on view upon arrival at that node (for example, a text might be scrolled to a specific paragraph).

• Often, an entire document is specified as the destination and viewing commences at some default location within the document (for example, the start of a text).

• Figure illustrates these concepts graphically.

Hypermedia

• q

Hypermedia

• Some authors distinguish between referential and organizational hyperlinks. Referential links are the cross-references distinctive of hypermedia. Organizational links are special links which establish explicit structure by connecting a parent node with its children, forming a tree within the overall node-link graph.

Hypermedia• The traditional definition of hypermedia as being `multimedia

with links' belies many of the possibilities modern technology now offers. We like to define `real hypermedia' in a broader sense, with two additional components. Firstly, real hypermedia incorporates new technologies like interactive movies, panoramic images, navigable three-dimensional models, and virtual reality. Secondly, real hypermedia involves more than read-only browsing: it possesses integral facilities for communication and collaboration such as annotations, structured discussion, user feedback, message passing, and collaborative authoring.

Hypermedia

• Hypermedia is an enabling technology, from which an extremely wide variety of application domains profit.

• four golden rules for determining whether an application is suitable for hypermedia:

• 1) A large body of information is organized into numerous fragments.

• 2)The fragments relate to each other.• 3)The user only needs a small fraction at any time.• 4)The application is computer-based.

Hypermedia• The primary advantage of hypertext and hypermedia systems over more

traditional information systems based on databases is that users need not formulate queries to find information.

• Instead, graphical point-and-click style interaction is possible, which is easy and intuitive even for computer novices.

• This is what makes the hypermedia paradigm so attractive to millions of new Internet users.

• Studies have shown that users employ a number of different navigation strategies when navigating through a complex information space:

• Scanning: covering a large area without depth.• Browsing: following a path by association until one's interest is caught.• Searching: striving to find an explicit goal.• Exploring: finding out the extent of the information space.• Wandering: ambling along in a purposeless, unstructured manner.

Hypermedia

• World-Wide-Web• World Wide Web (WWW) is a global hypermedia

system on Internet. • It can be described as wide-area hypermedia

information retrieval aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.

• Through WWW it is possible to deliver hypertext, graphics, animation and sound between different computer environments.

• To use WWW the user needs a browser, that are used to display complex graphics, animation and sound.

Hypermedia

• WWW is extremely well used, very popular, and provides a very nice model of how even a tightly coupled system could be modularized.

• The WWW runs as a client/server system; • The WWW defines a set of protocols for

addressing (URLs), transporting (HTTP), and markups (HTML) that specify how the contents of the pages are to be interpreted to a viewer.

• The protocols hide location, server type, and document format from the user.

Software Tools

• User interface concept can be supported by software tools that extract user interface functions from transaction specific code

• These tools can enhanced consistency in the interface almost automatically.

• Provide an environment where design is simple• It reduce the development time and cost

Software Tools

• The system typically break down into a large number of modules or programs.

• Each programs has separate preferences, training and experiences in user design.

• Good user interface software tools can often establish a symbolic relationship between human computer interface design and programming productivity

Software Tools

• The best way to ensure that HCI principles incorporate into system design is to build them into software tools that control the user interface

• These software tools can serve as general purpose intermediates between user interaction and modules that conduct specific transactions

Hypermedia

Hypermedia

Hypermedia

Hypermedia