A Framework for Automated Evaluation of Hypertext Search Interfaces
Abstract
An evaluation framework and simulator of an interactive information retrieval system is introduced. The simulation environment implements a model of an interactive information retrieval system that uses an adaptive hypertext interface to present documents to the user. Links within such an interface are generated at runtime based on previous link selections. In addition to the model of the hypertext interface, several agents have been implemented which embody prototypical information exploration styles for such an interactive information retrieval interface. The simulation environment is designed to allow researchers to conduct exploratory investigations that can help to narrow the focus of future human subject studies by showing which differences in information exploration style and functionality within the interface or underlying search algorithms that are likely to produce significant differences in future human subject studies. An experiment was carried out to demonstrate how the simulation environment could be used to predict performance when using different search strategies in a dynamic hypertext
Authors: Richard C. Bodner, Mark Chignell
Published in: Texas Digital Library (University of Texas) (2006)