InsightFinder and ScratchPad

ScratchPad

ScratchPad

InsightFinder

InsightFinder


The World Wide Web is a powerful platform for a wide range of information tasks. Dramatic advances in technology, such as improved search capabilities and the AJAX application model, have enabled entirely new web-based applications and usage patterns, making many tasks easier to perform than ever before. However, few tools have been developed to assist with sensemaking tasks: complex research behaviors in which users gather and comprehend information from many sources to answer potentially vague, non-procedural questions. Sensemaking tasks are common and include, for example, researching vacation destinations or deciding how to invest. The InsightFinder and ScratchPad tools are extensions to the standard browser interface that are designed to capture, organize, and exploit the information discovered while performing a sensemaking task.  In addition to providing a graphical note taking space with enhanced bookmarking capabilities, the technologies include context-aware algorithms that help connect portions of a user’s notes to relevant portions of a webpage.  They therefore help users “connect the dots” between new information and previously saved content.

Publications

Wen-Huang Cheng and David Gotz. Context-Based Page Unit Recommendation for Web-Based Sensemaking Tasks. ACM International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces, Sanibel, Florida (2009).
[PDF, 940k]

Wen-Huang Cheng and David Gotz. Context-Based Page Unit Recommendation for Web-Based Sensemaking Tasks. 17th International World Wide Web Conference Posters, Beijing, China (2008).
[PDF, 288k]

David Gotz. The ScratchPad: Sensemaking Support for the Web. 16th International World Wide Web Conference Posters, Banff, Canada (2007).
[PDF, 1,134k]

Sch of Inform and Libr Science