Assessing visualization techniques for the search process in digital libraries

In this paper we present an overview of several visualization techniques to support the search process in Digital Libraries (DLs). The search process typi-cally can be separated into three major phases: query formulation and refine-ment, browsing through result lists and viewing and interacting with docu-ments and their properties. We discuss a selection of popular visualization techniques that have been developed for the different phases to support the user during the search process. Along prototypes based on the different tech-niques we show how the approaches have been implemented. Although vari-ous visualizations have been developed in prototypical systems very few of these approaches have been adapted into today’s DLs. We conclude that this is most likely due to the fact that most systems are not evaluated intensely in real-life scenarios with real information seekers and that results of the interest-ing visualization techniques are often not comparable. We can say that many of the assessed systems did not properly address the information need of cur-rent users. (author's abstract