Benefits of document maps for text access in knowledge management: a comparative study

ABSTRACT

Analyzing, structuring and organizing documented knowledge is an important aspect of knowledge management. In order to ease the access to text collections, in literature so-called document maps have been proposed which visualize the inherently vague semantic similarity structure of a corpus of documents. In this paper we investigate a document map system which is specifically designed for typical text access tasks in knowledge management. Based on an empirical task-model we present design, realization and results of a comparative laboratory study which evaluates the document map concept against an alternative text-access interface. We show that the graphical overview offers significant benefits over a text-based access interface for certain knowledge management tasks. We also discuss its drawbacks and point to further system improvements which promise to make the technology even more effective.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.3 Information Search and Retrieval

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.m Miscellaneous
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)

General Terms:
Documentation, Experimentation, Human Factors, Measurement

Keywords:
document map, evaluation, information visualization