Between browsing and search, a new model for navigating through large documents

International audienceThis paper proposes a new model for document access, which combines the search and browsing approaches. We define a good navigation as a navigation which is as quick and direct as possible and which offers good precision and recall rates in finding the text segments that are relevant for the user's information need. Our navigation model relies on recent advances in natural language processing and it is based on two traditional cognitive principles that are inherited from works on the visualization of information. This model is implemented in a navigation prototype which is designed for physicians who want to consult official recommendations to take medical decisions. Even if this model has not been really evaluated yet, we show the dynamicity and the efficiency of our approach on few detailled examples