SortTables, A Browser – Graduate
Seminar, 8-30-95
SortTables: A Browser for a Digital Library
Bill Wake
Graduate Seminar, VPI Computer Science
Aug. 30, 1995
Overview
Browsing
Physical Browsing
- Access to the item
- Potential access to all the items
- Sense of neighborhood
- Variable focus
- Serendipity
Online Browsing
- Like physical browsing, but no physical access
- Speed
- Browsing from remote sites
- Multiple arrangements
- Flexible manipulation
- Examples
SortTables: A System for
Browsing
- Table metaphor
- Support for
- Movement
- Sorting
- Searching
- Restriction
- Example
Design Goals
- Simple metaphor with high interactivity
- Range restriction and multiple orderings
- View the whole database
- Integrate browsing and searching
- Progressive utility
- Sense of progress
Implementation Experience
- Spreadsheet prototype – test ideas
- NeXT graphical interface – explore interface
implementation - VT100 versions
- Portable
- Formative evaluation
- Database implementation testbed
Influences
- VTLS
- Envision
- MARIAN
- Spreadsheets
- Editors
Data Structure
“Thread file” – like cards connected by string
[Picture omitted]
Data Structure: The Bounds Tree
[Picture omitted]
Data Structure: The Bounds Tree
[Picture omitted]
Data Structure: Space Requirements
[Picture omitted]
Evaluation of a
Process
- Much information retrieval evaluation asks: “Which documents
best answer this query?” - Some IR has a “process” or “strategy” focus: information
seeking, broaden/narrow, etc. - We are “thrown” into the information-seeking process: what we
have done affects what we will do.
Evaluating Processes
- Code inspection
- Software development
- Usability evaluation methods
- Library usage
“Attempting proofs of correctness taught us not how to prove
existing programs correct, but rather how to develop provably
correct programs.” Dijkstra? Gries? Wirth? …
Evaluation of a Process
[Picture omitted]
Suppose YA = YB for:
- quality
- cost
- time to deliver
Which process should we prefer?
Approach 1: Inside the Black Box
- Robustness
- Reliability
- Quality of partial results
- Ease of monitoring
Browsing: Inside the Black Box
- Sense of progress
- Sense of closure
- Fewer false trails
- Tend not to give up too soon
Approach 2: Externalities
[Picture omitted]
“An externality or spillover effect occurs when production or
consumption inflicts incidental costs or benefits on others.”
Samuelson & Nordhaus
Economics, 12/e, p. 712
Externalities
Examples:
- Pollution, Congestion, Turnover
- R&D, Education/Learning
Organizations will naturally try to shift costs externally, and to
capture external benefits.
Browsing: Externalities
- Familiarity with catalog
- Learn distributions
- Learn effective searching
- Retention
Future Directions
- Data structure
- Graphical user interface
- Other data sets
- Evaluation