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Information Foraging with a Proximity-Based Browsing Tool

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Abstract

This paper describes a user friendly, powerful information foraging tool. Document sets are presented through combinations of traditional ranked lists and 2-dimensional proximity-based visualisations, created by uniting graph-theoretic clustering and force-directed layout techniques, where article positions are determined by inter-document similarities. By using Gestalt principles and information encoding, the simple layout improves search efficiency by leveraging human cognitive strengths that have generally been under-utilised in commercial GUI development. In this paper, design and realisation of the layout technique are described in the context of an article browsing framework. Results of an indicative comparative laboratory study, which evaluates the client application – and in particular Graph-Theoretic Force-Directed (GTFD) visualisations against traditional search engine interfaces – are then presented. This study demonstrates the advantage of graphical presentations when browsing an article collection. Finally, potential improvements identified during the study are discussed, as are future directions for this approach to collection browsing

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University College, Cork, Ireland

    C. Hoare & H. Sorensen

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  1. C. Hoare
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  2. H. Sorensen
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Correspondence to C. Hoare.

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Hoare, C., Sorensen, H. Information Foraging with a Proximity-Based Browsing Tool. Artif Intell Rev 24, 233–252 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-005-9008-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-005-9008-4

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