Interface design for an interactive information retrieval system: A literature survey and a research system description

Abstract

This article focuses on the human interaction characteristics of an information retrieval system, suggests some design considerations to improve man‐machine cooperation, and describes a research system at Stanford that is exploring some of these techniques. Librarians can only be of limited assistance in helping the naive user formulate an unstructured feeling in his mind into an appropriate search query that maps into the retrieval system. Consequently, the process of query formulation by the user, interactively with the information available in the system, remains one of the principal problems in information retrieval today. In an attempt to solve this problem by improving the interface communication between man and the computer, we have pursued the objective of displaying hierarchically structured index trees on a CRT in a decision tree format permitting the user merely to point (with a light pen) at alternatives which seem most appropriate to him. Using his passive rather than his active vocabulary expands his interaction vocabulary by at least an order of magnitude. Moreover, a hierarchically displayed index is a modified thesaurus, and may be augmented by adding lateral links to provide semantic assistance to the user. A hierarchical structure was chosen because it seems to replicate the structure of cognitive thought processes most closely, thus allowing the simplest, most direct transfer of the man's problem into the structure and vocabulary of the system.

A systematic review of interactive information retrieval evaluation studies, 1967–2006

“…Bourne and Hahn also describe the work of David Thompson, a researcher at Stanford University in the late 1960s. Thompson's work (described in his own work in with a review of interface design for IIR systems) focused on refining and testing theories about the human‐machine interface and developing interactive man‐machine dialogues.…”

Human factors engineering in computerized mental health care delivery

“…One method that is attractive is the use of "computerinitiated dialogue." In this method, the computer presents various alternatives and questions to the user (Martin, 1973;Thompson, 1969Thompson, , 1971. Examples of this type of dialogue are found in question-and-answer, form-filling, and menu-selection approaches.…”

Generation of thesaurus in different languages a computer based system

“…The application of computers for updating, testing, editing and printing thesaurus 25 has gained much importance due to the use of thesaurus as a vocabulary control device in bibliographic information storage and retrieval systems, at the input stage for controlled indexing and at the retrieval stage for expanding the f ~,f search query to increase recallboth in batch and on-line modes of processing 18,22,62,64.…”