107 Presentation

Slide1: 

Making the Most of Controlled Vocabularies in Search Interfaces ASIS&T IA Summit 2005 Montreal March 7, 2005 presented by Chris Farnum Information Architect

Outline: 

Outline Goal – share techniques for making controlled vocabularies, indexing, and metadata accessible to searchers Intro/Background “More like this” Browsing Controlled Vocabularies Field Indexes Thesauri Search term suggestions

Introductions: 

Introductions Chris Farnum Information Architect and Usability Design Product Manager, ProQuest previously worked with Argus Associates and Compuware 7+ years IA experience LIS background – U. Mich. SILS 5 years library public service crfarnum@yahoo.com chris.farnum@il.proquest.com

Slide4: 

ProQuest Search Redesign << Before After >> Background

Background: 

Background Rich Metadata Available (ABI/INFORM Global and others) Subject Company Person Location Classification Codes NAICS/SIC Document Type and more…

Background: 

Background Guiding principles: Find multiple ways to leverage metadata, especially facets. Place opportunities to use and learn about metadata in the path of the user’s workflow but don’t require people to use them. Balance needs of expert and novice searchers. Make search tools context sensitive, so they appear when/where they are useful.

#1 “More like this…”: 

#1 “More like this…” Enable the “berry picking” strategy advocated by librarians. Let users see the metadata! Hyperlink terms for sideways searching. Allow users to combine terms and launch a search from the document level.

Slide9: 

Ovid – Wilson Business Abstracts

Slide10: 

bibliographic metadata faceted classification indexing to combine terms…

Best Practices: 

Best Practices “More like this” enables bottom up searching Multiple ways to implement “more like this” User chooses facets/terms Fully automatic

#2 Browsing Controlled Vocabularies: 

#2 Browsing Controlled Vocabularies An alternative to searching. Not all users are search-dominant. Complements searching Browsing is better for some tasks

Browsing in ProQuest: 

Browsing in ProQuest A separate area in the IA especially for browsing. Editorially managed taxonomy / directory Data-driven browsing powered by facetted index term associations (co-occuring terms) Browsing within special content collections (publications)

Slide17: 

Editorially created taxonomy

Slide18: 

Look up index terms restrict to facets narrow by co-occurring terms

Slide19: 

to results breadcrumb navigation

Slide20: 

Location Category Channel Facetted drill-down is data-driven, but functions as a taxonomy.

Best Practices: 

Best Practices Offer novices assistance exploring and narrowing topics. Include a separate/alternate area for user who prefer browsing. Not everyone is search-dominant. Support data-driven facetted browsing when possible – very flexible and always up to date.

#3 Field Indexes: 

#3 Field Indexes Field indexes can be tools for helping users build queries. Enable users to find valid terms to use for searching specific fields. Assist users who don’t know your search engine’s syntax. Can be data-driven or based on static lists.

Slide23: 

OCLC FirstSearch

Slide24: 

browseable indexes / pop-ups

Slide25: 

abrasiv

Best Practices: 

Best Practices Make it simple - the look-up process and the steps to add terms to a search. Make tools optional but accessible. Types of tools Static / editorially created Data-driven A-Z lookups Tools for exploring facets / narrowing

#4 Thesauri: 

#4 Thesauri Got a thesaurus? Incorporate it into the search interface. Thesauri make can useful tools for building searches. Allow users to explore related terms and find approved terms. Experts will appreciate it, novice searchers can learn from it.

Slide29: 

PubMed

Best Practices: 

Best Practices Primary user audience should determine how prominent the thesaurus and the complexity of its structure appears. Ways to incorporate: Tool that assists in building a query. Separate search mode. Behind the scenes – for example, the search engine automatically searches on synonyms

#5 Search Term Suggestions: 

#5 Search Term Suggestions Enable narrowing and browsing within the context of search. The majority of searches entered by users are 1 or 2 keywords. No separate starting point required - users begin with the search box. Helps focus keyword queries by suggesting better/alternate terms and categories. Integrates searching and browsing.

ProQuest Smart Search: 

ProQuest Smart Search Database / context sensitive – it’s aware of the database or combination of databases currently active Step 1 - Suggestions based on the user’s query: topic terms (subjects, companies, people, locations) or pairs of terms AND-ed together Publications Step 2 – Narrow as in topic guide with results visible.

Slide40: 

1st results screen – suggestions

Slide41: 

Null results - suggestions

Slide42: 

2nd screen – narrowing using co-occurring index terms

ProQuest Smart Search: 

ProQuest Smart Search How it works: Several methods used to analyze and match keywords with index terms. Exact matches Accounts for synonym relationships Co-occurrences with keywords and other index terms Associations with full text keywords in documents viewed/printed Editorially created associations Suggests paired combinations of terms if more than one keyword is entered. Suggests publications that are exact keyword matches and those with high numbers of matching index terms.

Best Practices: 

Best Practices Decide whether you are narrowing within the results set or making suggestions from across the while database. Integrate suggestions into the results screen. Include breadcrumbs.

Final Thoughts: 

Final Thoughts Use these models as inspiration, not a template. Choose and adapt them to your audience’s needs. If you are investing in rich controlled vocabularies, these strategies can help to make the fruits of your labors more visible.

Live Demo (as time allows): 

Live Demo (as time allows) A tour of ProQuest’s search UI and controlled vocabs. ProQuest (authentication required) Let’s play stump Smart Search! Got a favorite search to try? For those playing at home, see the online promo for Smart Search: http://www.proquest.com/division/pqnext/previews/SmartSearch/

Special thanks to…: 

Special thanks to… Information Architecture for the World Wide Web 2nd Ed. (Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville) Search Engine Watch (Danny Sullivan) - http://searchenginewatch.com/ Dan Hepp, John Law, and Hania Kutcher for their keys roles in designing the Smart Search technology the ProQuest user interface.

Contact: 

Contact Chris Farnum Information Architect ProQuest Information and Learning Ann Arbor, MI crfarnum@yahoo.com chris.farnum@il.proquest.com work phone: 734.975.6214 url: http://crfarnum.webhop.info