From information retrieval to hypertext and back again: The role of interaction in the information exploration interface

This work explores the design space of user interfaces for large-scale full-text database retrieval systems. Research suggests that elements of hypertext interfaces may be merged with traditional information retrieval (IR) algorithms to produce flexible hybrid interfaces for user-directed information exploration. This work examines the effectiveness of multiple-view newspaper-like interfaces, and describes a prototype that uses newspaper-style layouts to organize information retrieval results. Finally, it explores some possible visualization techniques designed to aid browsing performance.; The first of two experiments in this thesis examines the effectiveness of the simultaneous display of several documents retrieved by a given query. Experimental results suggest that viewed recall increases with increasing numbers of articles displayed on the screen simultaneously. Subjects' decision-making strategies appear to be independent of user interface factors.; The second experiment tests differences in behavior between query-based and link-based browsing. Differences in performance are found between groups of users employing different strategies, but not between interface conditions. These results suggest that dynamic query-mediated hypertext interfaces are viable alternatives to more explicit queries, and that subjects' intrinsic strategies have significant impact on their interaction with the system and on their performance.; This work proposes an implementation of dynamic links in the WWW medium. It concludes with a discussion about the nature of hypertext interfaces and about the role of the user interface in information exploration tasks, and suggests some avenues for future research in this area.