An Information Visualization Tool for the Interactive Component-Based Evaluation of Search Engines

Abstract

In this paper, we present an InfoVis tool based on SanKey diagrams for the exploration of large combinatorial combinations of IR components – the Grid of Points (GoP). The goal of this tool is to ease the comprehension of the behavior of single IR components within fully functioning off-the-shelf IR systems without recurring to complex statistical tools. In order to assess the quality of the proposed SanKey-based InfoVis tool we conduceted an initial user study that led to interesting conclusions, yet to be validated in a future and more comprehensive study.