Contextual Multi-Dimensional Browse

Browsing, which usually alternates with search in information seeking on the web, highly depends on information organization of the browsed web site. An emerging web content categorization is multi-faceted, which does not impose any rigid structure, and allows users to slice and dice the information space from any chosen “dimensions” they wish to browse. However, owing to the limited capacity of human information processing, too many choices and too much freedom in browse tend to disorient users and increase difficulty in information seeking. It is well documented in the literature that importance of dimensions changes contextually. Therefore, we propose that the interface for multi-faceted browsing should incorporate contextual information by adjusting accessibility of dimensions according to their importance in varied contexts. We conduct experiments to investigate whether contextsensitive interface will increase browsing effectiveness and the empirical results strongly support the advantages of such interface.