Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
User Interface Tools
Getting information out of a database is as important as putting it in. The point of human-computer
communication—the user interface—is to maximize the quality and efficiency of the interchange. The
better the search engine interface, the easier it is for users to interact with the data. A major function
of the user interface is to decrease the cognitive load on the researcher so that the data created by
the underlying application can be quickly and easily absorbed. It also provides a mechanism for the
user to painlessly communicate to the application. A variety of visualization tools have been
developed to aid researchers by presenting data so researchers can evaluate complex protein
sequences, identify the location of genes on chromosomes, and, in general, make the otherwise
unintelligible and seemingly endless strings of data intelligible. Visualization techniques are discussed
in depth in
Chapter 5
, "Data Visualization."
From a data input perspective, the pull-down menus and check boxes supported by a standard Web
browser, as demonstrated by the Web version of Entrez, represent standard user interface tools. Of
the tools available to extend database search functionality within a Web browser environment, the
most popular are free-text entry, query by example, and controlled vocabulary.
NLP is the technology that allows free-text searches of databases, whether in a Web browser or local
application. A statement such as:
What is the molecular weight of the hemoglobin molecule?
automatically generates a different statement, for example, a SELECT statement for a SQL database
