Metadata Type System: Integrate Presentation, Data Models and Extraction to Enable Exploratory Browsing Interfaces
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Metadata Type System: Integrate Presentation, Data Models and Extraction to Enable Exploratory Browsing Interfaces Yin Qu, Andruid Kerne, Nic Lupfer, Rhema Linder and Ajit Jain Interface Ecology Lab, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA yin, andruid, nic, rhema, [email protected] ABSTRACT on serendipity" [32]. By exploratory browsing, we mean Exploratory browsing involves encountering new information browsing when the task is open-ended and the user is unfa- during open-ended tasks. Disorientation and digression are miliar with the information space. Exploratory browsing is problems that arise, as the user repeatedly loses context while key to berrypicking [3], the iterative process in which the user clicking hyperlinks. To maintain context, exploratory brows- encounters new information, and her understanding and infor- ing interfaces must present multiple web pages at once. mation needs evolve. Browsing and search are complemen- tary strategies for exploring information [32]. In exploratory Design of exploratory browsing interfaces must address the search [46], users engaged in learning and investigation it- limits of display and human working memory. Our approach eratively refine information needs. While this paper directly is based on expandable metadata summaries. Prior seman- addresses exploratory browsing, its implications also impact tic web exploration tools represent documents as metadata, exploratory search. but often depend on semantic web formats and datasets as- sembled in advance. They do not support dynamically en- Users lose context while browsing, as new information is countered information from popular web sites. Optimizing encountered [16]. Interlinked pages are shown in separate presentation of metadata summaries for particular types of viewports, leading to disorientation [10], the problem of not documents is important as a further means for reducing the knowing where you are or how to return to an encountered cognitive load of rapidly browsing across many documents. page in a network of information, and digression [17], the problem of going off track amidst many open windows or To address these issues, we develop a metadata type system tabs. Disorientation and digression can grow acute during ex- as the basis for building exploratory browsing interfaces that ploratory browsing. To counter, we design new interfaces that maintain context. The type system leverages constructs from maintain context for the user during exploratory browsing. object-oriented programming languages. We integrate data models, extraction rules, and presentation semantics in types Engineering exploratory browsing interfaces that maintain to operationalize type specific dynamic metadata extraction context requires building mechanisms for dynamically pre- and rich presentation. Using the type system, we built the senting trails [9] of linked documents. Since display and the Metadata In-Context Expander (MICE) interface as a proof user’s cognitive resources, such as working memory [11], are of concept. A study, in which students engaged in exploring limited, the interface must present documents as summaries, prior work, showed that MICE’s metadata summaries help to reduce display space and cognitive load. Typically, sum- users maintain context during exploratory browsing. maries refer to manually or algorithmically extracted texts that reveal the chief points or substance of a document. Author Keywords Dynamic Metadata; Exploratory Browsing; Type Systems The present research hypothesizes that metadata – a data structure that describes a document – can function as a valu- ACM Classification Keywords able form of summary. Many popular, useful web sites do H.5.2 Information interfaces and presentation: User Inter- not directly publish metadata. Thus, mechanisms for extract- faces: Graphical user interfaces. ing metadata from ordinary web pages are required. Further, exploratory browsing involves encountering heterogeneous INTRODUCTION types of information, each of which is best represented with Browsing is a fundamental World Wide Web (WWW) activity particular data models, layouts, and styles. The interface must [33]. According to Marchionini and Shneiderman, "browsing dynamically derive and present metadata summaries particu- is an exploratory, information-seeking strategy that depends lar to encountered information types at runtime, to reduce the cognitive load of browsing chains of linked information. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed The present research operationalizes a metadata type system for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the to address challenges of dynamically summarizing and pre- author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or senting heterogeneous documents as expandable metadata in republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission a unified context, to enable exploratory browsing across di- and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. EICS 2014, June 17–20, 2014, Rome, Italy. verse websites. The type system integrates object-oriented Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. mechanisms for describing: (1) data models of underlying ACM 978-1-4503-2725-1/14/06 ...$15.00. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2607023.2607030 (e) red line indicating previously expanded metadata indicating dynamic expansion of linked information (a) exploring related topics when browsing a Wikipedia article (d) exploring an Amazon book in search results, and related books continue browsing citations (c) exploring citations exploring references of a (b) of the article scholarly article encountered encountered in (b), and in search results one of its references Figure 1: An overview of Mia’s exploratory browsing with MICE. Snippets show close-up views of her session. Arrows denote browsing linked information. metadata schemas; (2) extraction rules for deriving metadata alizer, but goes beyond by supporting dynamic acquisition, summaries from particular web pages, using appropriate data presentation, and exploration of new information. models; and (3) presentation semantics to guide usable dis- We begin this paper with an exploratory browsing scenario play of metadata summaries. When the user explores a web that motivates development of the interface and type system, page in context, the runtime dynamically assigns the optimal followed by a discussion of related work. Next, we use the metadata type, instantiates typed metadata summary objects, scenario to contextualize an explanation of how the metadata extracts metadata from the page to populate the instances, and passes appropriate semantics to the interface, along with in- type system enables exploratory browsing interfaces, such as stances, for type-specific presentation. The interface makes MICE. We then present a user study in which computer sci- relationships between linked documents visible. ence students browse and explore scholarly articles for prior work search and project ideation. The results show how Our contributions include: MICE supports exploratory browsing in context. We finish by deriving implications for engineering exploratory brows- 1. Demonstrating, in exploratory browsing, the unique value ing interfaces, and drawing conclusions. of metadata as a form for document summaries. 2. Integrating data models with extraction rules and presenta- SCENARIO: EXPLORATORY BROWSING WITH MICE tion semantics for rich, usable presentation of metadata sum- Mia is a computer science student who wants to conceptual- maries that helps mitigate cognitive load. ize a research project about exploratory search. She starts by searching Google for “exploratory search”. MICE presents 3. Supporting heterogeneous information types through doc- search results in an expandable list. Each result is presented ument subtype polymorphism, which promotes reuse. as a snippet followed by a collapsed document with only the 4. Supporting encountering new information as needed for title visible. Mia notices that the title shown in MICE is click- exploratory browsing and berrypicking, by dynamically bind- able, like the title links Google would present. She clicks on ing documents, types, extraction, and presentation. the plus button to expand the collapsed document in the first result, which is a Wikipedia article [47]. Information from 5. Making metadata available from popular web sites, such that document is accessed in real time, converted to metadata as Amazon, ACM Digital Library, and search engines. summary, and presented in MICE (Figure1a). Using the metadata type system, we built an example The metadata summary of the Wikipedia article introduces dynamic exploratory browsing interface, the Metadata In- the concept of exploratory search, including its history, re- Context Expander (MICE) (Figure1)[24]. The visual ap- search challenges, and major researchers. Related topics are pearance of MICE looks like a typical XML or RDF visu- linked. Some linked topics are new to Mia. With MICE, Mia can easily expand linked topics, bringing metadata about data of multiple types from heterogeneous sources, and sup- them into the current context (Figure1a). Further related top- porting exploratory browsing with new information.