When I posted the note about Marti Heart’s new book, Search User Interfaces, in Interfaces and Topic Maps I was thinking about it being relevant for software interfaces to topic maps.
After stewing on it for several days and a close read of Chapter 1, I think it has broader application for topic maps.
Topic maps present information about subjects using a single representative for each subject. And those representatives can record properties and associations entered using different identifications.
That sounds like an interface to me. It presents all the considerations of any “interface” in the usual sense of the word. Does it match the intended user’s understanding of the domain? Is the information of interest to the user? Does it help/hinder the user making use of the information?
The Hearst volume is relevant to topic mappers for two reasons:
First, in the conventional sense of the “user interface” to software.
Second, as a guide to exploring how users understand their worlds.
Both are important to keep in mind when constructing topic software as well as topic maps themselves.