Interactive Visual Facets to Support Fluid Exploratory Search

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

Exploratory search starts with ill-defined goals and involves browsing, learning, and formulating new targets for search. To fluidly support such dynamic search behaviours, we focus on devising interactive visual facets (IVF), visualising information facets to support user comprehension and control of the information space. To do this, we reviewed existing faceted search interfaces and derived two design requirements (DR) that have not been fully addressed to support fluid interactions in exploratory search. We then exemplified the requirements through devising an IVF tool, which coordinates a linear and a categorical facet representing the distribution and summarisation of items, respectively, and providing context for faceted exploration (DR1). To support rapid transitions between search criteria (DR2), the tool introduces a novel design concept of using facets to select items without filtering the item space. Particularly, we propose a filter-swipe technique that enables users to drag a categorical facet value sequentially over linear facet bars to view the items in the intersection of the two facets along with the categorical facet dynamically summarizing the items in the interaction. A user study of 11 participants with realistic email search tasks shows that dynamic suggestions through the timeline navigation can help discover useful suggestions for search; the novel design concept was favoured over using facet values as filters. Based on these practices, we derive IVF design implications for fluid, exploratory searches.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication14th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, VINCI 2021
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publication date2021
Pages1-10
Article number3481565
ISBN (Electronic)9781450386470
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Event14th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, VINCI 2021 - Potsdam, Germany
Duration: 6 Sep 20218 Sep 2021

Conference

Conference14th International Symposium on Visual Information Communication and Interaction, VINCI 2021
LandGermany
ByPotsdam
Periode06/09/202108/09/2021
SponsorComputer Graphics Systems Group at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Digital Engineering Faculty, University of Potsdam
SeriesACM International Conference Proceeding Series

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 ACM.

    Research areas

  • Exploratory search, Fluid interaction, Information facets

ID: 339143829