Pathfinder Development » 1 Picture == 1,000 Words

1 Picture == 1,000 Words

Alice Toth, Thursday, May 3, 2007 @ 12:01 pm

For most of us, visual presentation has a greater immediate impact than text or numbers alone. Graphs are effectively used in presentations for that very reason: they quickly convey that Column A is larger than Column B, or that Line 1 has outperformed Line 2. They allow us to easily grasp the overall concept before drilling down into the details. When done well, they allow us to convey complexity with ease (see Tufte, Edward).

When a search engine visually presents the results in a manner that allows me to quickly grasp the depth of the search, quite naturally it catches my eye. Grokker.com is a search application that displays the results both in an outline view and a map view. The user can toggle back and forth between the two views before selecting their preference for viewing the results.

In addition to the two views, Grokker also categorizes the results. So rather than scrolling through a list of results and scanning each summary to determine its relevance, you can first scan the categories and then decide where to delve deeper. For example, are you more interested in Edward Tufte’s books or Tufte IL, the Norwegian football team.

The map view is the interactive view, graphically transitioning between levels of information. The initial display shows an outer circle representing the search term. Contained within are sets of circles representing the results categorized according to Grokker’s clustering engine. Each category circle can contain a nest of subcategories or pages, and so on. Each click zooms in on the selected circle and visually presents the data for that category, either in the diagram alone or in a split view of diagram and list.

It’s a different way to present a results list. What I really appreciate with the map view is that the graphical display lets me immediately grasp the breadth and depth of the results. Naturally the categorization needs to be relevant or the results are meaningless; however, the few searches I did seemed to cluster the results in valid categories allowing me to determine where to explore further. Cool graphical transitions aside, presenting data in this manner did allow me to quickly parse large sets of results and determine which branches warranted further exploration. That being said: go play and let me know what you think.

Topics: Design, Design Patterns, Information Architecture, Interaction Design

user experience design

Comments: 3 so far

Need it be said that this article is worthless without pictures?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Seriously though, Grokker definitely has some great possibilities!

Let’s just hope they get bought by one of the main 4 SEs and their ideas integrated! Trying to compete with the main 4 will be hard going.

Comment by Craig, Saturday, May 5, 2007 @ 7:37 am
I consider myself a power-user. I surf the web on a 24 inch monitor. Your website’s static, non-resizable view pane makes it very annoying to see the results I want. 1/3rd or more of the screen real estate is devoted to helping me improve my search.

Take a lesson from Google (and Altavista even before that) on vertical search user interfaces: Make the option to refine the search go right above the searches… not to the sides of the search results. You’re getting in my way and being obnoxious by suggesting my searches need refinement. It’s a One Click World, and those clicks are cheap. The cheapest click of all is the backclick… which people use when they feel the website is controlling their user experience, rather than the other way around.

Comment by John "Z-Bo" Zabroski, Saturday, May 5, 2007 @ 9:39 am
Craig: I *almost* put up a few screenshots and then I confess, laziness took over and it was just easier to plop in a link. It looks like Grokker has been around for a few years, but where I see the possibilities are for the Semantic Web (or Web 3.0 if you prefer). I think that’s where we’ll see things like this take off.

Z-Bo: I have nothing to do with Grokker. Trust me, it’s not my site. But, since you have complaints about their site, I suggest you write to Grokker directly about it so your voice is heard.

Comment by Alice Toth, Monday, May 7, 2007 @ 10:32 pm