This document summarizes research on supporting vague, motive-based searches through visual interfaces. It discusses how motive-based searches aim to find suitable products when the information need is vague. The objective is to support vague feelings and ideas during information seeking. It proposes supporting inspiration, investigation, and evaluation at syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. Current work focuses on concepts for inspiration, including travel inspiration interfaces that provide examples and suggestions to broaden the search scope.

1. HCI International 2013 – Models for Spatial and Embodied Interaction
Improving Motive-Based Search
Utilization of Vague Feelings and Ideas in the Process
of Information Seeking
24 JULY 2013 – Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Chair of Media Design
Faculty of Computer Science / Technische Universität Dresden
This work has been supported by the European Union and the Free
State Saxony through the European Regional Development Fund.
Mandy Keck

2. HCI International 2013 24.JULY 2013 Mandy Keck 2 | 8
__ research project »VISEA - Visual Search Interfaces«
__ focus: visual interfaces for the product search
Problem:
vague information need has to be transformed into a
specific search query (Dörk et al. 2012)
Our Objective:
supporting vague feelings and ideas in the process of
information seeking
Introduction
Fig. 1 travel search interface: www.opodo.com
Fig. 2 search interface for financial products:
www.boerse-stuttgart.de

3. HCI International 2013 24.JULY 2013 Mandy Keck 3 | 8
(cf. Broder 2002, Jansen 2008,
Marchionini 2006, White 2009)
Motive:
__ cause of search, specifies some general conditions
__ influenced by emotions and interests of the user
Motive-Based Search
NAVIGATIONAL
SEARCHING
TRANSACTIONAL
SEARCHING
INFORMATIONAL
SEARCHING
reaching a particular site performing a certain transaction acquisition of information
MOTIVE-BASED SEARCH
LOOKUP
EXPLORATORY
SEARCH
known-item-search,
fact-finding, verification
knowledge acquisition,
discovery, comparison
vague information need (motive),
aim: finding a suitable product

4. HCI International 2013 24.JULY 2013 Mandy Keck 4 | 8
Supporting Motive-Based Search (1)
Aspects:
Inspiration
__ create new ideas
__ broaden the scope
Investigation
__ construct and organize knowledge space
__ don't get lost
Evaluation
__ select, exclude, prioritize
__ narrow the scope, create focus
Aspects
Level
Inspiration Investigation Evaluation

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Supporting Motive-Based Search (2)
Levels (Beckers & Fuhr 2012):
Syntactic Level
__ based on the contents of web pages and databases
__ requirement of explicit interaction
Semantic Level
__ centred on the content
__ intelligent and implicit user support
Pragmatic Level
__ concerned with the context of the user's interaction
with the machine
__ observe and understand the context of the user
Aspects
Level
Syntactic Level
Semantic Level
Pragmatic Level

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Supporting Motive-Based Search (3)
physical devices
software components
sensors, etc.
discovery
aggregation
provide
Context
Components
Context
Base
Context Layer
Web Service Layer
Service
Composition
Service
Discovery
Input/Output Layer
Fig. 3 Layered architecture of context services based on (Li & Zheng 2008)

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Outlook
__ Providing functions for aspects (inspiration, investigation, evaluation) and semantic & pragmatic level
__ Current work: concepts for inspiration
Fig. 4 inspiration for travel search
Fig. 5 query by example
Fig. 6 inspirator for travel
destination

8. References
Broder, A.: A taxonomy of Web search. SIGIR Forum, 36(2), 3–10., 2002
Jansen, B. J., Booth, D. L., Spink, A.: Determining the informational, navigational, and transactional intent of Web que-
ries. Inf. Process. Manage. 44, 1251-1266., 2008
Marchionini, G.: Exploratory search: from finding to understanding. Communications of the ACM. New York, USA:
ACM, 41-46, 2006
White, R. W., Roth, R. A.: Exploratory Search: Beyond the Query-Response Paradigm. San Rafael, California: Morgan
and Claypool Publishers, 2009
Dörk, M.; Williamson, C. and Carpendale, S.: Navigating tomorrow‘s web: From searching and browsing to visual ex-
ploration, ACM Trans. Web 6, 3, Article 13, 28 pages. New York, USA, 2012
Li, Y., Zheng, X.: A Personalized Service Oriented Pragmatic-Context Architecture and Supporting System. Seventh
International Symposium on Instrumentation and Control Technology, 2008