Anwar Alhenshiri

Augmenting the visual presentation of Web search results

Improving the relevancy of Web search results has been of increasing interest in recent years. The nature of the Web implies heterogeneity, large volumes, and varied structures. Hence, finding results that best suit the needs of every individual is a very challenging problem. Accordingly, interactive graphical and visualization techniques are suggested to increase the ability of the display to handle large numbers of results while simultaneously presenting several attributes for each Web page. In addition, query reformulation and reconstruction is usually controlled by the search engine. Consequently, the results suffer from redundancy and/or irrelevancy. Integrating the user in the process of query reformulation-by visualizing the process itself-may benefit the overall search relevance. This paper presents an interactive Visual Search Engine (the VSE) in which both processes of query reformulation and results presentation are visualized. In the user study, the effectiveness of the VSE was demonstrated when compared to Google.

Building Support for Web Information Gathering Tasks

Web information gathering includes tasks in which users attempt to locate, organize, and use information from different sources on the web to satisfy an information need, often over multiple sessions. An example is the case of writing a report or beginning an investigation. This paper presents the results of a research study to explore the difficulties users experience during such tasks. Twenty users participated in the study in which the frequency of specific kinds of activities involved was recorded along with qualitative measures. The results of the study provide insight into the areas most needing support in order to provide guidance for the building of new tools to support users in these tasks. The results indicate that tools are needed to bring information into a final report, facilitate editing, and to support re-finding information in its original context over multiple sessions.

User Studies in Web Information Retrieval: User-Centered Measures in Web IR Evaluation

This paper provides technical support for research in Web Information Retrieval (Web IR). The main objective of the paper is to discuss experimental data, evaluation metrics, and results analysis in user studies intended for evaluating the effectiveness of web information retrieval techniques. User related measures are discussed in the light of emerging web search techniques. Indications for further improvements in web search evaluation studies are also highlighted.

Information Gathering Tasks on the Web: Attempting to Identify the User Search Behaviour

This paper presents a part of a larger research study that concerned investigating the task of information gathering on the Web. The study took several subtasks of the information gathering task for investigations in order to develop recommendations for improving the design of tools intended for this type of task. Since information gathering is a highly search-reliant task, it was important to investigate the kind of search behavior users follow during the task. The research discussed in this paper attempts to identify the user search behaviour during information gathering on the Web. The results of the user study indicate that the user search behaviour during Web information gathering tasks has characteristics of both orienteering and teleporting behaviours.

Investigating web information gathering tasks

In this paper, we describe the preliminary results of a study investigating subtasks of the information gathering task on the Web. Those subtasks are: managing information, handling multiple sessions, and re-finding information. The study compared features in a prototype, WIGI (Web Information Gathering Interface), to the current state of Web information gathering that involves mainly the Web browser. Substantial differences were revealed between the two states compared in the study.

Exploring the concepts of visualization, clustering, and re-finding in Web information gathering tasks: A survey

The paper explores research concerned with improving aspects of the Web information gathering task. This type of task involves finding source of information on the Web, comparing different types of information, and re-finding information for reasoning and decision making. Research in Web information retrieval has explored visualization, clustering, and re-finding for improving the effectiveness of Web search tools. Investigations concerning aspects of the Web information gathering task are discussed in this paper. In addition, the paper provides practical research recommendations for improving the design of Web information gathering tools.

Information gathering within websites: Visualized links for navigation (VLN)

The fundamental model for Web navigation has not changed much since the beginning of the development of Hypertext and Web search engines. Current browsing allows users to search by formulating queries, entering known URLs, and by navigation by following links embedded in webpages. Considerable research has focused on navigation mechanisms to improve the effectiveness of the process of finding relevant information. This paper examines a method for navigating using a technique based on presenting a view of a website as a tree of augmented links that the user can utilize in information gathering tasks. A user study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of this technique. The results of the study indicate that the visualized tree-based presentation technique is effective and has potential to complement traditional query formulation to provide a more effective browsing experience for users.

Effective information gathering on the web

This paper presents Web Gad, a tool intended to improve how users perform information gathering tasks on the Web. Web Gad is meant to assist users with several subtasks under the information gathering task with specific emphasis on managing, organizing, keeping, and re-finding information during the task. The prototype system was designed based on recommendations derived in a previous user study (Alhenshiri et al., 2012) in which the user behavior, user activities, used tools, and encountered difficulties were observed and analyzed. Web Gad is ready for evaluation in a planned complete factorial and counterbalanced user study to demonstrate its effectiveness, efficiency, and enjoyments as a Web information gathering tool.

Investigating Features in Support of Web Tools for Information Gathering

This paper presents a study that investigated three features to improve how users perform information gathering tasks on the web. These features were based on recommendations that were developed in a previous work. The results of the previous study indicated that tools supporting information gathering could be improved by: 1) keeping track of references to information as it is gathered for the task 2) keeping the task information integrated between sessions, and 3) providing integrated search, browsing, and editing capabilities. The results of the study described in this paper using a prototype indicate that these features improve performance.

The effect of user search behaviour on web information gathering tasks

Research has identified high level tasks in activities users perform on the web. Amongst those tasks is information gathering. This type of task is complex, exploratory, and it usually requires more user effort than other tasks. During the task of information gathering, users may follow one or more types of search behaviour. This paper investigates the effect of the user search behaviour on the task of information gathering on the web. Activities users perform on the web during information gathering and their correlation with the type of behaviour followed by the user were examined. The research draws recommendations for further studies that may concern developing tools for supporting web information gathering tasks according to the user search behaviour