Interfaces for Information Retrieval and Online Systems The State of the Art

Subjects:

• Library & Information Science » Information Science

Reviews:

• Compiles 22 papers presented at a 1989 American Society for Information Science mid-year conference. They are organized in six sections: interface styles, artificial intelligence and the user interface, hyperdocuments, case studies in human-computer interaction, evaluation, and trends in technological standards. Each section starts with an introduction written by a guest editor. This compilation underscores the maturation of information retrieval systems--at last, the user is becoming the focus of these systems. The basic premise behind this book is that the currently prevalent command or menu-based user interfaces for retrieval systems, such as online public access catalogs, suffer from serious drawbacks and that they should be replaced by direct-manipulation user interfaces such as those of Macintosh computers. The problem in moving toward such direct-manipulation interfaces, as pointed out by one of the guest editors, is the lack of an agreed-upon metaphor for information retrieval systems. Exciting, user-centered work in the area of information retrieval. Recommended for library and information science collections, advanced undergraduate and up.
  —Choice
• In his introduction, Martin Dillon notes that the primary question posed by the conference was "How can we give users the benefit of usability while also giving them the power and versatility of the new, modern systems?" (p. xv). The papers assembled in this volume offer insights into how well existing interfaces accomplish this goal as well as examples of the research and development under way to improve the design of future interfaces.
  —HARDCOPY

Table of Contents:

• Introduction by Martin Dillon
• Interface Style, Martha Lindeman
• Comparison of Direct Manipulation, Menu Selection, and Command Language as Interaction Styles for Online Public Access Catalogs by Dudee Chiang
• Rapid Prototyping and Code Generation for Direct-Manipulation Interfaces by Ray R. Larson
• Toward a Direct-Manipulation Interface for Conceptual Information Retrieval Systems by Daniel E. Rose and Richard K. Belew
• The Berry-Picking Search: User Interface Design by Marcia J. Bates
• Artificial Intelligence and the User Interface Amy J. Warner
• Designing a Domain Knowledge Base for an Intelligence Interface by Doris Florian
• Modality, Extensionality, and Computability by Diana D. Woodward
• A Domain Knowledge-based Natural-Language Interface for Bibliographic Information Retrieval by Zbigniew Mikolajuk and Robert Chafetz
• Structured Representation of Theoretical Abstracts: Implications for User Interface Design by Hannah Francis and Elizabeth D. Liddy
• Hyperdocuments, Gary Marchionini
• Authoring Hyperdocuments: Designing for Interaction by Gary Marchionini, Peter Liebscher, and Xia Lin
• The User Interface: A Hypertext Model Linking Art Objects and Related Information by Judi Moline
• Information Chunking as an Interface Design Issue for Full-Text Databases by T. R. Girill
• Hypertext: User-driven Interfaces by Michael A. Shepherd and Carolyn Watters
• Details on Demand: Hypertext Models for Coping with Information Overload by Charles B. Kreitzberg
• A Task Analysis for a Hyperlibrary System by Martha J. Lindeman, John R. Bonneau, and Kym E. Pocius
• Case Studies in Human-Computer Interaction, Thomas H. Martin
• The Variability of Subject Searching in an Online Public Access Catalog over an Academic Year by Neal K. Kaske
• A Prototype Workstation for Accessing and Using an Optical Disc-based Database of Biomedical Documents by Frank L. Walker and George R. Thoma
• Designing a User-System Interface by Helen Pfuderer and K. C. Miller
• Exploring Discretionary Users' Interaction with Word-Processing Technology by Susan Wiedenbeck and Radhika Santhanam
• Evaluation, Martin Dillon
• User Interface Modeling by Carla L. Burns
• Generic Approach to CD-ROM Systems: A Formal Analysis of Search Capabilities and Ease of Use by Tian-Zhu Li
• The User Interface for CD-ROM Systems and Online Catalogs by Steven D. Atkinson, Judith Hudson, and Geraldene Walker
• Trends in Technological Standards, M.E.L. Jacob, editor
• The Client-Server Model in Information Retrieval by Clifford A. Lynch
• Selected Bibliography
• Index