Figure 1: NU Desktop Search
The software is built
for the
Windows platform, and makes use of Microsoft .NET 2.0 and 3.0. The
application requires either:
VDS provides a new user interface on top of the infrastructure provided by WDS. This new user interface provides capabilities including:
1. Query specification panel, where the search criteria are specified. The upper half of the view provides the search fields available, while the lower half provides suggestions for the currently selected search field based upon the search criteria already specified and the contents of the database matching the partially specified search query. The suggestions for the keywords field are a ranked list of salient words or phrases extracted from the search results, while the suggestions for the other fields are simply a ranked listing of the meta-data values occurring in the search results for the selected field.
2. Search results panel, which provides a listing of the search results. Different presentation options are available for viewing these results, and these are detailed below.
3. Item details panel, which provides details of the item selected in the search results panel.
4. Item preview panel, which provides a preview of the document contents of the item selected in the search results panel.
Figure 1:
NU
Desktop Search
A wide range of techniques exist for visualisation of personal information. Four different views for the search result presentation have been provided. The views available are a List view which is similiar to layout of web based search results, a Details view which mimisics the presentation of the Details view in Windows Explorer, a Timeline view due to the key importance that academic studies have placed on time as a factor in locating personal information, and a Comparison view which presents search results as an X-Y scatterplot with the axes being the most important factors in locating personal information – time and relevancy.
Timeline
visualization
The timeline visualization aims to present the search results in a time based ordering, with a visual timeline representation displaying the relative position of each item on the time scale. The search result items are presented vertically stacked within a scrollable list, with items visually grouped by date. For each item, the title, date and an icon representing its file type is displayed. Each item can be hovered over with the mouse to obtain further details such as file name, type and size. Search keywords contained within the title are displayed with bold text.
The timeline presentation, displayed to the left of the scrollable list, provides an overview of all the items contained in the list and is a fixed representation which does not scroll. For each of the dates present in the item list, a perpendicular line is drawn across the timeline to mark its relative position. The length that the marker extends beyond the timeline is relative to the number of items associated with each date. So, if a large number of items are associated with the same day a longer line will extend from the timeline. This approach provides a visual indication of the volume of items at different points along the timeline, and allows for patterns to be visually identified, such as locating periods where a particular personal event is associated with an increased volume of personal communication. For each of the items currently visible within the scrolling list, an additional line connects the list items with the associated timeline markers, and these lines change dynamically as the list items are scrolled.
Comparison visualization
The comparison visualization aims to present the
search results in a more
graphical form, displaying the results on an X-Y scatterplot. The
coordinate space
represents a comparison of two of the most important factors to the
user when
locating search results – relevancy and time. Each search result is
presented
as an icon within the coordinate space, with the icon representing the
file
type. Each icon can be hovered over with the mouse to obtain further
details
such as file name, type and size. All search results are simultaneously
visualized,
unlike classical list presentations, thereby providing an overview of
the
search results without the need to scroll. The purely visual
presentation of
the comparison view allows patterns to be visually identified, such as
locating
the most recent relevant files, or the files of a specific type.
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| Figure 4: Search Panel | Figure 5:
Suggestion Panel |
When you performance a search, the results appear in the Search Results panel. You can sort
the results, and change the view to assist in identifying items. An
icon is shown for each item to identify its file type. You can use the Item Details and Item Preview panels to quickly view
the details and contents of an item, and open the item to work with it
further.
To open an item to work with it further, double-click on the item in
the Search Results Panel. You
can also right-click on an item to open it using the Open option, or to open the folder
containing the item using the Open
Containing Folder option.
You can sort results by file title, author, date, size or rank. To
sort your results, click the column heading you want to sort by or
choose the sort order from the View
> Order By menu. If you reselect the column which is used as
the current sort order, the sort order is reversed.
A useability study was used to evaluate
the
usability of the VDS
user interface compared against the existing WDS user interface. The
tests involved having the participants perform
a range of search tasks with both the WDS and VDS, with the useability
being assessed using a number of techniques. The results from an
evualation using the System
Usability Scale (SUS) are shown in
Figure 6.
On the SUS scale, a higher score is better, with the
scores ranging from zero to 100. It is clear the useability of VDS is
substantially
better than WDS, with there being a 40% improvement in the SUS scores.
Figure 6: Median SUS
usability score results
variables, with error bars
representing the standard error about the mean.
This document has detailed the VDS application, a desktop search
user interface. Useability testing
has shown the
VDS application to be more useable than WDS.
