The context of the interface

ABSTRACT

Our ideas on context (from both a soft and hard laboratory perspective) often manifest themselves at the interface. Interfaces for information seeking range from systems which offer little contextual information or flexibility of use to systems which are highly driven by the searcher's individual interaction. In this talk I will use existing search interfaces to highlight how the nature of information retrieval interfaces has changed in response to research from contextual IS&R. A particular theme will be the commercial nature of web search interfaces and how approaches such as persuasive and emotional design can be used to encourage interaction. I will also consider the nature of specialized versus general purpose search interfaces and the challenges raised in interface design. The (not very) hidden agenda behind this presentation will be to argue for an interaction-centered approach to IR systems.

REFERENCES

• 1: Nicholas J. Belkin, Some(what) grand challenges for information retrieval, ACM SIGIR Forum, v.42 n.1, June 2008 [doi>10.1145/1394251.1394261]
• 2: Steve Fox , Kuldeep Karnawat , Mark Mydland , Susan Dumais , Thomas White, Evaluating implicit measures to improve web search, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.23 n.2, p.147-168, April 2005 [doi>10.1145/1059981.1059982]
• 3: Peter Ingwersen, Information retrieval interaction, Taylor Graham Publishing, London, UK, 1992
• 4: {Rob77} S. E. Robertson. The Probability Ranking Principle in IR. Journal of Documentation. 33. 4. pp 294--304. 1977.
• 5: Ryen W. White , Joemon M. Jose , Ian Ruthven, A task-oriented study on the influencing effects of query-biased summarisation in web searching, Information Processing and Management: an International Journal, v.39 n.5, p.707-733, September 2003 [doi>10.1016/S0306-4573(02)00033-X]
• 6: Ryen W. White , Diane Kelly, A study on the effects of personalization and task information on implicit feedback performance, Proceedings of the 15th ACM international conference on Information and knowledge management, November 06-11, 2006, Arlington, Virginia, USA [doi>10.1145/1183614.1183659]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Human Factors

Keywords:
information, interaction, interface