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The Flamenco Image Browser uses metadata to improve image search during architectural design, providing query previews and search term refinement options. This innovative tool aims to enhance architects' work practices by offering a specialized search interface for architectural images.
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Flamenco Image Browser:Using Metadata to Improve Image Search During Architectural Design Ame Elliott Group for User Interface Research (GUIR) & Dept. of Architecture University of California, Berkeley
Problem Statement • Architects begin new projects by looking at images of prior projects • How are elementary schools put together? • What’s new in patio materials? • Current image search interfaces are not helpful for image browsing in the early phase of design • Rely on well-formulated textual queries • Ignore context of architecture
Scope of the Project • The Flamenco Image Browser is one customization of a toolkit for domain-specific search (the Flamenco projects) • The Flamenco Image Browser is one component of my dissertation Understanding Architects’ Work Practices (ethnography, task analysis, interviews) Prototyping Tools . Hardware: Digital Desk Software: Image Search UI Evaluation Quantitative Qualitative
Scope of the Project • The Flamenco Image Browser is one customization of a toolkit for domain-specific search (the Flamenco projects) • The Flamenco Image Browser is one component of my dissertation Understanding Architects’ Work Practices (ethnography, task analysis, interviews) Prototyping Tools . Hardware: Digital Desk Software: Image Search UI Evaluation Quantitative Qualitative
Flamenco Image Browser • Interface to a collection of architectural images using metadata about the images to support search • Metadata about the images provides • Query previews giving hints about possible next actions • Ways of broadening or refining search terms
Why Use Metadata? • Open questions about its utility • How to use metadata not well understood • Not an obvious thing to do for images • Contrasts with automated content analysis • Defies conventional wisdom • If a picture is worth 1,000 words, let the pictures speak for themselves • Professional architects have different needs than curators • The thumbnail is the whole document, not like text search using a title to stand in for a long article
Faceted Metadata Image: Architect: Period: Location: Concept: Planalto Palace Parti Communiste Francais Pantheon Oscar Neimeyer Oscar Neimeyer Jacques-Gabriel Soufflot 20th Century 20th Century 17th & 18th C. Brasilia Paris Paris Stone Curvilinear Stone
Faceted Metadata Image: Architect: Period: Location: Concept: Planalto Palace Parti Communiste Francais Pantheon Oscar Neimeyer Oscar Neimeyer Jaques-Gabriel Soufflot 20th Century 20th Century 17th & 18th C. Brasilia Paris Paris Stone Curvilinear Stone
Evaluation Methodology • Solicit feedback from architects to determine if faceted metadata is helpful and how to present it • Not evaluating if the current metadata in the system is the right metadata • Lo-Fi evaluation of paper prototype • 1 hour one-on-one with 3 professional architects • Walk-through interactions on a paper computer, users think-aloud (audio recorded), questions about the experience • Informal study of live version • 1 hour one-on-one with 9 architects /grad students, 2 tasks (audio recorded) and a survey
100 images of France in the 1,000 results for stone 734 images of France in the entire collection
Results of Lo-Fi Study • The difference between searching within results and changing to a new search confused users • The “breadcrumb” did not help users orient themselves when browsing results • Home >> Gehry, Frank >> Berlin Home >> Berlin • Users were surprised at the outcome and could not anticipate which they were getting (refine or expand). • Image search is exploratory, not reductive • Specific textual queries not important • “If I knew what I wanted to type in the box I’d just go get it myself.” • Expanding search more important than refining is different than
Goals for Study of Live Web Site • Make iterative changes to the alternatives to identify useful aspects of the UI – not statistical analysis • Learn to what extent the metadata is useful for searching • How much text is too much? • What kinds of queries will the users do? • Explore how to clarify searching within results vs. starting a new search
Informal Study of Live Version • Comparison- a form-based UI to the same collection of images • Task 1 – Free form search • Participants told they are helping to test an image search engine • Asked to talk about a project they’re working on and something they’d like to find • Let them go at it and try to find images they’re interested in – they can ask any questions they want but no formal instructions given • Task 2 – Treasure hunt • Participants given paper copies of 3 images (but no metadata) and told to find them (range from easy to hard) • Exit survey
About the System • Web browser used to view Cold Fusion generated pages, queries made to a mySQL database • 36,000 images from the UC Berkeley Architecture Slide library • 5 facets of metadata about each image • Image title, architect, period, location, and concept • Shallow hierarchy for results in architect, period, and location • Concept facet is from the Getty Art and Architecture thesaurus - a 40,000 term hierarchical thesaurus of descriptors of the built environment – this hierarchy not tested in the live version Building Materials Masonry Finishing Materials Stonework Brickwork Shingles
Results: Metadata is Helpful • Very positive feedback about Flamenco • All 9 participants named the metadata in the search results area as their favorite aspect of Flamenco • Metadata was successful at giving hints about where to go next • Perceived as useful “These are places I can go from here.”
Results: More Metadata Please • Participants asked for more metadata • Although there were complaints about the contents of the metadata, users still wanted more • Longer lists of options (more hints) • Users wanted more control to make very specific searches • Half the participants requested the ability to control order of results with metadata • Juxtapose visible images 2 different ways: • Overview (one image from each project) vs. like together ( all images of a project next to each other) • Different than ranking for text retrieval (precision, recall), but ordering does matter
Results: Complaints • The UI was not successful at clarifying searching within results vs. starting a new search • Only 2 of the 9 participants understood the distinction without discussion – but they want to do both • The 1/3 of the participants who couldn’t find a treasure hunt image felt that Flamenco was slow • Corroborates findings that perceived system speed is about finding what you want (Spool ‘00)
Enthusiasm for Metadata • Contradicted my suspicions that a sledgehammer and pick- through-the-rubble approach would be preferable • No-one thought there was too much text • Adding more text preferable to adding another row of images
Conclusions • Metadata is useful for exploratory tasks • Good at giving hints about where to go next • Architects want to use metadata to get more control • Of results display • Build complex queries • Sometimes the right word is worth more than many pictures
Contributions • Increase understanding of what makes a good search interface • Provide insights about how image search differs from text search
Acknowledgements • Thanks to • Marti Hearst my advisor • Andy Edmonds for excellent coding • Andy Chou for help with the database • the Berkeley Museum Informatics Project for access to the image collection • the Flamenco project team for search ideas • and the members of GUIR for helpful feedback
Related Work • “Berrypicking” model of information seeking (Bates) • Information scent (Pirolli) • Query previews (Plaisant & Shneiderman et al) • QBIC & Blobworld (content analysis)
Architects’ Image Use Practices • Architects rely on personal image collections and libraries of print media • Images emerge as relevant due to their juxtaposition with other images