SIGIR'98 papers: Aspect Windows, 3-D Visualizations, and Indirect
Comparisons of Information Retrieval Systems
Aspect Windows, 3-D Visualizations, and Indirect Comparisons of
Information Retrieval Systems
Russell Swan
Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval,
Department of Computer Science,
The University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, MA 01003 USA
James Allan
Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval,
Department of Computer Science,
The University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, MA 01003 USA
Abstract
We built two Information Retrieval systems that were targeted for
the TREC-6 ``aspect oriented'' retrieval track. The systems were
built to test the usefulness of different visualizations in an
interactive IR setting---in particular, an ``aspect window'' for the
chosen task, and a 3-D visualization of document inter-relationships.
We studied 24 users of the system in order to investigate: whether the
systems were more effective than a control system, whether experienced
users outperformed novices, whether spatial reasoning ability was
a good predictor of effective use of 3-D, and whether the systems
could be compared indirectly via a control system.
Our results show substantial differences in user
performance are related to spatial reasoning ability
and to a lesser degree other traits. We also obtained
markedly different results from the direct and indirect comparisons.
SIGIR'98
24-28 August 1998
Melbourne, Australia.
sigir98@cs.mu.oz.au.