MultiBeeBrowse - Accessible browsing on unstructured metadata

Abstract

Growing abundance of information on the Internet, especially the Next Generation Internet, poses even more challenges on more efficient information management; hence it has brought attention of the researchers to the faceted navigation. Existing solutions, however, do not address the majority of users, who are still inexperienced in using the faceted navigation solutions or who do not understand underlying concepts of the Semantic Web technologies, or both. The query refinement process, while using the faceted navigation interface, is more complex than, e.g., refining a simple keyword-based query. In this article we present MultiBeeBrowse (MBB), an accessible faceted navigation solution that solves aforementioned problems in the browsing environment. We present how to improve users' access to their history of refinements; we discuss how users can share their browsing experience. And last bust not least, we present an adaptable user interface, which aims to decrease information overload. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.