Query Graph Visualizer: A visual collaborative querying system

Abstract

Collaborative querying harnesses the collective search experiences of users for query formulation. We present the Query Graph Visualizer (QGV), a visual collaborative querying system that recommends related queries to a userpsilas submitted query through a network visualization scheme. Users are able to explore the query network and select queries for execution on an information retrieval (IR) system. The design of the QGV is discussed, focusing on its architecture and the implementation of the user interface. An evaluation of the QGV was also conducted to assess the performance of the system against to a conventional search engine. Results indicate that the evaluators who used the QGV completed their tasks much faster compared to those using a search engine alone. A usability evaluation also showed that the system complied with standard user interface heuristics.