Another Word For It Patrick Durusau on Topic Maps and Semantic Diversity

April 10, 2010

Interfaces and Topic Maps

Filed under: Search Interface,Searching — Patrick Durusau @ 8:11 pm

A copy of Search User Interfaces by Marti A. Hearst, Cambridge University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-521-11379-3, arrived in my mailbox today.

I am in the final stages of putting Part 2 of the ODF 1.2 standard together but I did peek inside long enough to find:

  1. The Design of Search User Interfaces
  2. The Evaluation of Search User Interfaces
  3. Models of the Information Seeking Process
  4. Query Specification
  5. Presentation of Search Results
  6. Query Reformulation
  7. Supporting the Search Process
  8. Integrating Navigation with Search
  9. Personalization with Search
  10. Information Visualization for Search Interfaces
  11. Information Visualization for Text Analysis
  12. Emerging Trends in Search Interfaces

There is a place for this volume and others like it on the shelves of every topic map interface designer.

I will be tracking the references in this volume so I can report on the latest work in the field.

Stay tuned for future updates as I work my way through this one. Promises to be a real interesting read.

(Update: The full text of this volume is freely available at: http://searchuserinterfaces.com/. I will post links to individual chapters in future commentary.)

March 21, 2010

Casual Users

Filed under: Interface Research/Design,Search Interface — Patrick Durusau @ 6:17 pm

Abraham Bernstein’s Google lecture Making the Semantic Web Accessible to the Casual User (2008) is quite good.

Relevant to topic mappers are his comments on structuration theory and how social structures both make signals meaningful as well as limit what meanings we will see. Topic maps can capture the meaning as seen by multiple parties as well as anyone who can see separate meanings as being attached to the same subject.

An “interactive” search interface tested by Berstein and his group got the highest rating from users. Making users into collaborators in authoring topic maps, asking “Did you mean?,” sort of questions and capturing the results might help capture unanticipated (by some authors) answers as well as increasing user satisfaction.

« Newer Posts

Powered by WordPress