Information Visualization for Interactive Information Retrieval

As search tasks move beyond targeted search and into the domain of complex search, a substantial cognitive burden is placed on the searcher to craft and refine their queries, evaluate and explore among the search results, and ultimately make use of what is found. In such cases, information visualization techniques may be leveraged to enable searchers to perceive, interpret, and make sense of the information available throughout the search process. This tutorial will establish the fundamental principles and theories of information visualization, explain how information visualization can support interactive information retrieval, and survey search interfaces from my own research that leverage information visualization techniques. The goal of this tutorial will be to encourage researchers to make informed design decisions for how to integrate information visualization into their own interactive information retrieval projects.