Incorporating Metadata into Search User Interfaces Marti Hearst Rashmi Sinha Ame Elliott Jen English Ping Yee Kirsten Swearington UC Berkeley http://bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/flamenco.html

Main Ideas Search is changing: Web design is changing: Two key ideas: More emphasis on flexibly showing next choices Less emphasis on ranking Web design is changing: More emphasis on dynamically determined views Less emphasis on pre-determined links Two key ideas: Task-specific design Harnessing the power of metadata

A Taxonomy of WebSites Catalog Sites Web-based Information Systems Web-Presence Sites Service-Oriented Sites high Complexity of Data low low high Complexity of Applications From Mecca et al., WebDB’99

An Important Trend Web sites generated from databases Implications: Web sites can adapt to user actions Web sites can be instrumented

Navigation on the Web Web search engines are good at getting people to the right site. But … what happens when the user reaches the site? Follow Links … or … Search

Following Hyperlinks Site Search Works great when it is clear where to go next Frustrating when the desired directions are undetectable or unavailable Site Search Is not getting good reviews

An Analogy text search hypertext

Goal: An All-Tertrain Vehicle The best of both techniques A vehicle that magically lays down track to suggest choices of where you want to go next based on what you’ve done so far and what you are trying to do The tracks follow the lay of the land and go everywhere, but cross over the crevasses The tracks allow you to back up easily

New interfaces are mixing and matching thesaurus-style metadata This is an abrupt transition from workspace. I think some kind of title slide goes between. I think your saying that metadata can be used (in conjunction with) workspaces to further restrict search – but now would be a good time to have a navigation slide. Time/Date Topic Role GeoRegion + The question: how to do this effectively?

Goals for Metadata Usage Well-integrated with search Provides useful hints of where to go next Tailored to task as it develops Personalized Dynamic This is the same as slide 45

The FLAMENCO Project Main goal: Answer questions such as: FLexible Access using MEtadata in Novel Combinations Main goal: Perform systematic studies to determine how metadata should be incorporated into search Answer questions such as: Given a set of user goals and a set of information: How many metadata combinations to show? What level of detail to show? How best to preview and postview choices?

Evaluation Methodology Regression Test Select a set of tasks Use these throughout the evaluation Start with a baseline system Evaluate using the test tasks Add a feature Evaluation again Compare to baseline Only retain those changes that improve results

Recipe Example

soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

soar.berkeley.edu/recipes

www.epicurious.com

www.epicurious.com

www.epicurious.com

www.epicurious.com

Epicurious Metadata Usage Advantages Creates combinations of metadata on the fly Different metadata choices show the same information in different ways Previews show how many recipes will result Easy to back up Supports several task types ``Help me find a summer pasta,'' (ingredient type with event type), ``How can I use an avocado in a salad?'' (ingredient type with dish type), ``How can I bake sea-bass'' (preparation type and ingredient type)

Metadata usage in Epicurious Prepare Cuisine Ingredient Dish Recipe

Metadata usage in Epicurious Prepare Cuisine Ingredient Dish I Select Prepare Cuisine Dish

Metadata usage in Epicurious Prepare Cuisine Ingredient Dish > Group by I Prepare Cuisine Dish

Metadata usage in Epicurious Prepare Cuisine Ingredient Dish > I Prepare Cuisine Dish Group by

Metadata usage in Epicurious Prepare Cuisine Ingredient Dish > I Prepare Cuisine Dish Select I Cuisine Prepare Group by

Metadata Usage in Epicurious Can choose category types in any order But categories never more than one level deep And can never use more than one instance of a category Even though items may be assigned more than one of each category type Items (recipes) are dead-ends Don’t link to “more like this” Not fully integrated with search

Epicurious Metadata Usage Problem: lacks integration with search

“Parametric” Search From an XML glossary "A search request submitted to a search or database engine delivered with consideration for the metadata of the underlying dataset.” www.sla.org/chapter/ctor/courier/v37/v37n1.pdf A survey of sites using parametric search: http://www.amp.com/search/default.asp (see product family search) http://ebiz.zilog.com/ http://www.sears.com (Dieselpoint) http://dieselpoint.com/flashlink.htm (for Dieselpoint 2.0 demo) http://www.findmro.com (Requisite's BugsEye) http://www.cypress.com (Saqqara's one step) http://infineon-tech.sacosnet.de/search/index.htm http://www.idt.com/tools/parametric.html http://www.ti.com/sc/docs/psheets/parms/uarts.htm#parms http://www.gensemi.com/search/productsearch.htm http://www.usa.samsungsemi.com/search/ http://www.gearfinder.com http://www.mysimon.com/category/index.jhtml?c=babydiaperingbathing

“Parametric” Search Sites Goal is to focus on product group for comparison shopping. Common Procedure Begin with a list of product "families" or groups. User selects a category, and is prompted to 1) select a sub-category from a list of hyperlinks or 2) select search parameters using a form If the number of results is too big, the system may prompt the user to refine the search further. When an acceptable number of results is returned, the user sees a list of products which can be: 1) sorted by various criteria 2) selected for display in a comparison table 3) viewed individually with more detail.

“Parametric” Search Observations: Only one facet (appropriate for products?) No query previews Breadcrumbs rare Many allow sorting by attribute to facilitate comparison “Others like this” simply moves up the hierarchy

Application to Biomedical Text

A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Asthma > Steroids A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate. Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (5) Prednisone (5) Pregnenes Budesonide (4) Corticosterone (3) Other Views Admin & Dosage (50) Drug Effects (20 Therapeutic Use (25) Risk Factors (4) More … User Preferred Musculoskeletal (4) Drug Resistance (6) All Categories (99) 99 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Steroids] [Cluster] 1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children. 2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children. …

A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Asthma > Steroids A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate. Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (5) Prednisone (5) Pregnenes Budesonide (4) Corticosterone (3) Other Views Admin & Dosage (50) Drug Effects (20 Therapeutic Use (25) Risk Factors (4) More … User Preferred Musculoskeletal (4) Drug Resistance (6) All Categories (99) 99 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Steroids] [Cluster] 1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children. 2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children. …

A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Asthma > Steroids A steroid-induced acute psychosis in a child with athsma. Management of steroid-dependent asthma with methotrexate. Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (5) Prednisone (5) Pregnenes Budesonide (4) Corticosterone (3) Other Views Admin & Dosage (50) Drug Effects (20 Therapeutic Use (25) Risk Factors (4) More … User Preferred Musculoskeletal (4) Drug Resistance (6) All Categories (99) 99 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Steroids] [Cluster] 1. Effect of short-course budesonide on the bone turnover of asthmatic children. 2. Effect of prednisone on response to influenza virus vaccine in asthmatic children. …

Asthma > Steroids > Admin & Dosage Dosage levels for asthmatic steroids: A survey. Related Categories Inhalators (40) Emotional Effects (25) Preferred Suppliers (30) User Preferred Musculoskeletal (0) Drug Resistance (2) All Categories (50) Steroids Pregnanes Pregnadienes (3) Prednisone (5) 50 Documents: [Sort by author] [Sort by popularity] [Sort by Dosage] [Cluster] 1. Optimal dosage levels for prednisone in the treatment of childhood asthma. 2. …

Other paths: back up and go forward Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide > Huang Asthma > Huang > Budesonide Asthma > Steroids Asthma > Steroids > Budesonide

Medical example Use dynamic previews Allow user to select metadata in any order At each step, show different types of relevant metadata, based on prior steps and personal history, include # of documents Previews restricted to only those metadata types that might be helpful

Dynamic Metadata Previews How different from Yahoo & Amazon? Dynamically determine what to show next Yahoo’s combos are predefined Amazon’s are also predefined, and limited to taste and general topic only A way to seamlessly integrate Related topics User preferences (personalization) Context-sensitivity

Application to Image Search

Summary Investigating how to design websites containing large sets of items Biomedical text Architectural images Metadata is being mixed and matched in interesting ways, but there are no guidelines on what works

Summary Our goals Systematically determine what works, with the following emphases: Task-centric Integrate metadata with search Dynamic previews Easily retrace steps Develop recommendations that reflect both the task structure and the richness of the information structure In future: integrate with more sophisticated displays

http://bailando.sims.berkeley.edu http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~hearst