Testing User Interaction With a Prototype Visualization- Based Information Retrieval System

The VIBE (Visual Information Browsing Environment) prototype system, which was developed at Molde College in Norway in conjunction with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, allows users to evaluate documents from a retrieved set that is graphically represented as geometric icons within one screen display. While the formal modeling behind VIBE and other information visualization retrieval systems is well known, user interaction with the system is not. This investigation tested the designer assumption that VIBE is a tool for a smart (expert) user and asked: What are the effects of the different levels of user expertise upon VIBE usability? Three user groups including novices, online searching experts, and VIBE system experts totaling 31 participants were tested over two sessions with VIBE. Participants selected appropriate features to complete tasks, but did not always solve the tasks correctly. Task timings improved over repeated use with VIBE and the nontypical visually oriented tasks were resolved more successfully than others. Statistically significant differences were not found among all parameters examined between novices and online experts. The VIBE system experts provided the predicted baseline for this study and the VIBE designer assumption was shown to be correct. The study’s results point toward further exploration of cognitive preattentive processing, which may help to understand better the novice/expert paradigm when testing a visualized interface design for information retrieval.