Visualizing Someplace to Eat:
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A Comparative Experiment of Three Interfaces for Searching a Restaurant Database

IS 247:
Information
Visualization &
Presentation
Fall, 2000
Professor Hearst

Experiment
XXXExperimental Method
XXXPilot Study
XXXExamples of the Interface
XXXResults of User Tests
XXXXX-Quantitative
XXXXX-Qualitative

Implementation
Conclusions
References
Problems with the VAE
Appendices

Sacha Pearson
Kim Garrett
Jennifer English

Contact Travelite

Overview

TraveLite is a web-based, customized travel guide publisher. It allows travelers to sort through the information available in the database and choose only what they decide they need or want and download that information to a PDA. In creating guides based on their interests and needs, travelers will have the opportunity to purchase their guide, rather than a static, bland product designed for a generalized perception of what a generic traveler in a region may need. One of the major design hurdles for the project, however, is how to support user queries over the vast amount of travel information that is available.

One of the primary tasks we will need to support in the prototype of TraveLite is building a guide online using a web-based interface. In order to build a guide, users will need to use some type of tool to sort through the large amounts of nominal and ordinal data available, and filter out the elements of interest specific to their needs. The search/filter task can be daunting given a large database of content, and the possibility for failed queries (0 hits) is high as more constraints are added to queries.

Traditional, form-based queries do not give the user any information about what the database can offer them and how their query constraints limit the data. When user goals are relatively fluid, it is helpful to have information about how loosening constraints will affect the returned set. For instance, if spending $5 per night more on a hotel room means twice as hotels to choose from, the user would like to have this information. It could be that using techniques that provide immediate feedback will allow the user to see how their constraints limit the data and will help them to make more informed decisions regarding what to collect for their customized guides.

We expect that a visualization tool such as the Visual Attribute Explorer will enable users to interact with the database in an intuitive manner that facilitates exploring, searching and selecting sets of data based on attributes relevant to the individual's travel needs.

In order to determine the appropriateness of using the Visual Attribute Explorer, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the comparative usability of the Visual Attribute Explorer. We compared the tool to a traditional, form-based query interface, as well as a dynamic query interface. The task was choosing a set of restaurants to include in a guide.