Innovation and Evaluation in Information Exploration Interfaces

Abstract

Information retrieval research traditionally has concerned itself with improving the effectiveness of indexing and retrieval mechanisms. Over the last twenty years, the field has seen data-handling capacity increase by orders of magnitude, and today search engines are close to becoming a commodity. Although much research has been conducted surrounding the use of information retrieval systems, our understanding how people interact with such technology has lagged behind. This workshop addresses user interface aspects of information exploration, the interactive use of information retrieval tools. We take a three-pronged approach by examining innovative interfaces, methods of empirical evaluation. and theoretical accounts.