MusicLand:%20Exploratory%20Browsing%20in%20Music%20Space

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MusicLandExploratory Browsing in Music Space
CPSC 533C Information Visualization Project
Presentation

• Heidi Lam
• December 15, 2004

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Agenda

• Motivation Exploratory browsing?
• The ideal infovis solution what should it be?
• MusicLand my proposed solution
• Visualization features
• Demo
• Evaluation
• Future Work

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Project Idea

• How can computer tools/interfaces better support
  exploratory browsing?

• What is exploratory browsing?

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Two Scenarios at an Online Store

• Find/Search Looking for Ray Charles The Spirit
  of Christmas with using the stores search
  tools, and input terms Ray Charles and spirit
  of Christmas

1. Exploratory Browsing Browsing at the Classical
   section ? Came across a Jazzified version of Bach
   ? Go to the Jazz section ? Ray Charles
   Christmas album is being advertised

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Two Scenarios at an Online Store

• The goals and assumptions of these scenarios are
  different
• With find/search
• with clear and precise targets
• want to find the target as quickly as possible

• With exploratory browsing
• need multiple queries to refine/define target
• getting there is half of the fun/work?

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Project Motivation

• Exploratory browsing is not well supported by
  current search tools

• To better support exploratory browsing, the
  interface should
• Provide context to allow users to interpret the
  query results based on their input terms ? what
  am I looking at?
• Guide navigation going from the familiar to the
  unfamiliar ? Given where I have been, where
  should I go next?
• Assist refinement of target based on retrieved
  results and query terms ? what can I look for
  next?

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Related Work

• Focus on query-based systems

• 4 approaches
• Spatial retrieved results are clusters into
  groups based on query terms, and displayed
  spatially
• List retrieved results are displayed as a linear
  list
• Temporal retrieved results in the context of
  timelines
• Integrated multi-view with combinations of the
  above approaches

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Related Work Spatial

1. Show relationship between keywordsInfoCrystal
   (1993)

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Related Work Spatial

1. Show relationship between keywordsInfoCrystal
   (1993)
2. Show clusters onlyLighthouse (2000)

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Related Work Spatial

1. Show relationship between keywordsInfoCrystal
   (1993)
2. Show clusters onlyLighthouse (2000)
3. 3D terrainBEAD (1993)

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Related Work Spatial

1. Show relationship between keywordsInfoCrystal
   (1993)
2. Show clusters onlyLighthouse (2000)
3. 3D terrainBEAD (1993)
4. Arrange multiple query results
   spatiallySparkler (2001)

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MusicLandOverall View
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MusicLandQuery Display
Arranges query results as a rectangularized Venn
diagram

• to put results in context of query terms
• to relate neigbouring regions by a query term

• Colour-coding the single term regions with
  primary colours, and the intersected areas with a
  mix of those colours
• Perceptual Layering to indicate the relative
  importance of each result region

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MusicLandSemantic Zooming

• To increase display capacity
• Full (artist, title, genre, style)
• Partial (artist, title)
• Minimal (artist)
• Nil (number of results)

Zoom
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MusicLandNew Query

• Select record of interest brings up a list of
  selectable attributes

• Old unused query regions fade and desize Time
  metaphor

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Dataset and Implementation

• 8556 mp3 files extracted from 714 albums by 315
  different artists, labeled with English terms (by
  Eric Brochu)

• Code written in Java with swt library

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Demo
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MusicLandEvaluation

• Based on a 2-participant formative evaluation

• Strengths
• Interprets query results in context
• Provides of possible query term choices
• Guides towards future queries with history
• Fades and desizes unused query regions
• ? Looks like MusicLand has largely achieved its
  design goals o)

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MusicLandEvaluation

• Weaknesses (Participants List)
• No album details
• Asymmetry of query term display
• No indication of new query terms in new query
• No Previews/Closing of query displays

• Weaknesses (My list)
• Scalability
• Perceptual layering
• Colour fading

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MusicLandLessons Learned

• The importance of prototyping

• Colour is difficult
• Providing context and details has a price in
  scalability

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MusicLandFuture Work

• Improve usability based on participants comments

• Launch and play the music albums
• Conduct usability study to verify the design
  principles behind MusicLand, and to study
  exploratory browsing

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Conclusion

• MusicLand is a tool designed to support
  exploratory browsing

• Displays retrieved results in a rectangularized
  Venn diagram to cluster results and to provide
  query terms as context
• Guides refinement of queries by providing a
  selectable list of attributes based on users
  current album of interest
• Anchors and guides new query formation by
  providing a history
• Formative study with encouraging results

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Questions