Knowledge Graphs versus Hierarchies
Bahareh Sarrafzadeh, Alexandra Vtyurina, Edward Lank, Olga Vechtomova · 2016
In exploratory search, how information is presented to the user and how the user interacts with the presented information heavily influence the user's success. In this paper, we examine two different spatial representations of search results: knowledge graphs and hierarchical trees. Through interaction logs we show that knowledge graphs can effectively reduce the need to read source content with no reduction in the quality of the information gathered by the user. Through qualitative interviews and thinkalounds we explore factors that influence user perception of different search results representations including biases, task, perceived structure of the data, and problem-solving approach. Overall, these results enhance our understanding of the role each of these representations can play in information seeking.