Trajectories of Search - Mapping Scientific Frontiers: The Quest for Knowledge Visualization - page 154

Fig. 4.8 Relevant documents for Task A in the ALCOHOL space (MST)

Fig. 4.9 Overview first: user jbr's trails in searching the alcohol space (Task A)

and number 21. Another special node in the map is number 57. Three out of four
users we studied chose this node as the starting point for their navigation.
Each trajectory map shows the course of visual navigation of a particular user.
Figure 4.9 shows user jbr's navigation trail for Task A in the alcohol space, who
performed the best in this group. Task A corresponds to the initial overview task in
Shneiderman's taxonomy. Users must locate clusters of relevant documents in the
map. Subsequent tasks are increasingly focused.
As shown in the trajectory map, user jbr started from the node 57 and moved
downwards along the branch. Then the trajectory jumped to node 105 and followed
the long spine of the graph. Finally, the user reached the area where relevant
documents are located. We found an interesting trajectory pattern - once the user