Chapter 15: Information Search
Discussion Topics with Answers
1. Describe the challenges first-time users face when using an information-exploration
system. Propose how these challenges can be overcome.
First-time users of an information-exploration system (whether they have
2. Argue whether textual search interfaces should keep details of how the search is
performed hidden from the users. Decide which approach will allow the user to get
more accurate results.
3. Describe a framework, of 3 to 7 phases, that will help to coordinate design
practices to satisfy the needs of first-time, intermittent, and frequent users who are
accessing a variety of textual and multimedia libraries.
See below (Box 15.1 from DTUI6):
4. Explain the strategy commonly used for searching multimedia archives. List the
limitations associated with this strategy.
Interfaces to structured databases and textual-document libraries are good
and getting better, but search interfaces in multimedia-document libraries are
a greater challenge. To locate items such as images, videos, sound files, or