Structural Browsing Technology Based On Association Rules And It's Application

With the amount of large-scale information in computer system growing rapidly,it is difficult for current browsing technology in interface to display it on small screen as a whole continuously and integrally,which makes people be confronted with many difficulties in cognition and interaction. Researchers have done many studies on browsing technology of large-scale information in the field of information visualization, and designed lots of Focus+ Context browsing technologies for various kinds of information. But, because some problems cannot be resolved effectively, these new technologies cannot be applied to user interface design by now.This paper uses the course of people browsing information on foldaway print paper as metaphor, presents a new Focus+ Context technology for browsing large-scale hierarchically structured information, named Structural Browsing Technology (SBT). In this technology, we layout the hierarchically structured information on a 3D flexible surface with node's details integrated into the tree structure, and have the entire hierarchically structured information displayed on small screen as a whole continuously and integrally by bending the surface flexibly and folding the surface structurally. We have developed effective procedures for manipulating the focus using pointer clicks as well as interactive dragging and for smoothly animating transitions across such manipulation. This technology also supports for multiple foci browsing that can make users browse different portions of the hierarchically structured information at the same time in a view, and reduce the cognitive load of users.Based on the interface display technology, this paper applied the data digging method to enhance the search analysis for the specific information, then help people get more related information. Currently, many statistical methods can be used to find the laws hidden in the lager amounts of information, this paper researched the data digging algorithm based on the association rule, and analyzed the classic Apriori algorithm, then processed and dug the experimental data to find the target information with a high degree relevance, to help user predict trends for searching information.In order to validate the usability of SBT, in this study, we applied it to user interface design, and designed two structural browsing interfaces for document and file system, respectively. We further conducted two experiments to test the usability of the structural browsing interface. According to the results of our study, SBT is a very effective technology for browsing large-scale hierarchically structured information. SBT can be used to browse different kind of hierarchically structured information easily. Both the learn ability and usability of the structural browsing interface can meet the requests of interface design.