Using searcher simulations to redesign a polyrepresentative implicit feedback interface

Information seeking is traditionally conducted in environments where search results are represented at the user interface by a minimal amount of meta-information such as titles and query-based summaries. The goal of this form of presentation is to give searchers sufficient context to help them make informed interaction decisions without overloading them cognitively. The principle of polyrepresentation (Ingwersen, 1996) suggests that Information Retrieval (IR) systems should provide and use different cognitive structures during acts of communication to reduce the uncertainty associated with interactive IR. In previous work we have created contentrich search interfaces that implement an aspect of polyrepresentative theory, and are capable of displaying multiple representations of the retrieved documents simultaneously at the results interface. Searcher interaction with content-rich interfaces was used as Implicit Relevance Feedback (IRF) to construct modified queries. These interfaces h...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: IPM
• Authors: Ryen W. White
• Keywords: Implicit Relevance Feedback, IPM 2006, Query-based Summaries, Searcher Interaction