Visualizing metadata : A virtual book spine viewer. D-Lib Magazine 10

Abstract. User interfaces for digital information discovery often require users to click around and read a lot of text in order to find the text they want to read – a process that is often frustrating and tedious. Because only a limited amount of text can be displayed on a computer screen, user interfaces rarely provide a non-linear, unstructured way to explore large information spaces or collections. We explore both information visualization concepts and traditional information organization concepts with an eye towards improving the user experience of computer mediated information discovery. We introduce the “virtual book spine ” and our virtual book spine viewer, an application which allows users to visually explore large information spaces or collections while also allowing users to hone in on individual resources of interest.