Making the Most of CVs Ontology Scope Note: Branch of philosophy that deals with being Branch of philosophy that deals with being Broader Term: Metaphysic

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Ontology Ontology Scope Note: Scope Note: Branch of Branch of philosophy philosophy that deals that deals with being with being Broader Term: Broader Term: Metaphysics Metaphysics Philosophy Philosophy Theology Theology Related Related Terms: Terms: SoulSoul

Making the Most of Controlled Vocabularies in Search Interfaces

ASIS&T IA Summit 2005

Montreal

March 7, 2005

presented byChris Farnum

Information Architect

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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

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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

• [email protected]• [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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ProQuest Search Redesign<< Before

After >>

Background

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Background

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

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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.

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#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.

Ovid – Wilson Business Abstracts

bibliographic metadata

faceted classification indexing

to combine terms…

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Best Practices

• “More like this” enables bottom up searching

• Multiple ways to implement “more like this”• User chooses facets/terms• Fully automatic

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#2 Browsing Controlled Vocabularies

An alternative to searching.

Not all users are search-dominant.• Complements searching• Browsing is better for some tasks

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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)

Editorially created taxonomy

Look up index terms

restrict to facets

narrow by co-occurring terms

to results

breadcrumb navigation

Location

Category

Channel

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

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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.

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#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.

OCLC FirstSearch

browseable indexes / pop-ups

abrasiv

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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

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#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.

PubMed

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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

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#5 Search Term SuggestionsEnable 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.

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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

• PublicationsStep 2 – Narrow as in topic guide with results

visible.

1st results screen – suggestions

Null results - suggestions

2nd screen – narrowing using co-occurring index terms

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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/

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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.

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Contact

Chris FarnumInformation ArchitectProQuest Information and LearningAnn Arbor, MI

[email protected]@il.proquest.comwork phone: 734.975.6214

url: http://crfarnum.webhop.info

Documents

Making the Most of CVs Ontology Scope Note: Branch of philosophy that deals with being Branch of philosophy that deals with being Broader Term: Metaphysic