![]() ![]() ![]() In INFO202, I designed a basic mini-database for non-traditional objects (shoes) using WebDataPro. Both recall and precision evaluate relevancy, and relevancy is “essential to the evaluation of information systems” (Weedman, 2008, p. Some of the other objectives can be to measure recall – the number of relevant objects retrieved divided by the number of relevant objects in the collection, and to measure precision – the number of relevant objects retrieved divided by the total number of objects. During the process of usability testing, it is also essential to gauge user satisfaction and should incorporate a way for a user to express their pros / cons in their own language by leaving voluntary comments (Unger & Chandler, 2012, p. Testing can also deliver a clear, numerical method of validating a finding such as understanding how many users came up against the same problem. A qualitative approach allows for setting measurable benchmarks and can provide results to be validated statistically (Unger & Chandler, 2012, p. Simply put, it’s about creating a set of tasks for the database / site, and asking a user to perform those tasks, and evaluating where there are issues and where there are successes. 115).Ī key component of the evaluation of the effectiveness of the design of a database for recall and precision, as well as efficiency and user-friendliness, is to conduct usability testing, a frequent tool used in user experience (UX) design. “Understanding how a system is designed is crucial to understanding how to use and evaluate it…” (Weedman, 2008, p. One way to achieve these results is by utilizing Boolean operators such as: AND, OR, NOT, or proximity operators such as: ADJACENT, NEAR, or specifying fields such as: AUTHOR=“Shakespeare” (Rosenfeld, Morville, & Arango, 2015, p. Search aids allow entry of user-defined queries leading to a customized set of results to match the query. To do either of these, the user may use keywords, or controlled vocabulary, such as subject headings embedded within the website. A subject search is when a user is researching a topic or general subject. A known item search is when a user needs to find a specific document or fact. In general, there are two types of searches a person typically does: known item and subject search. ![]() The taxonomist develops the taxonomies to improve product findability as well as creating functional design to enable people to locate the stored information as easy as possible.Īn IR system also needs to support both search (keywords for example) and navigation (subject hierarchy for example). 309).Ī taxonomist is an example of the personnel needed to be recruited to set up the new system as they will be tasked with creating and developing a taxonomy, a hierarchical system that provides ways to navigate the controlled vocabulary of the collection, the terms the search engine will be able to search for that are linked to the information they represent, for example, for an e-commerce website that sells clothing, a simple term such as “dress” would retrieve all of the dresses the company has available to sell. These systems allow for structure and a way to map language in order for a user to more easily locate information (Rosenfeld, Morville, & Arango, 2015, p. Controlled vocabularies are subsets of natural language and include authority files, classification systems, and thesauri. Rosenfeld, Morville, & Arango (2015) describe a controlled vocabulary as a set of predetermined preferred terms that describe a specific domain (p. With this in mind, a designer should determine what attributes to assign to each individual component of a database collection, for example, a user searching a photography database for an image of a high school, therefore, images of high schools should contain “high school” in order for efficient retrieval.Ī useful tool to aid in the creation of these attributes is to utilize a controlled vocabulary so as to limit variables for a user to choose from. Designers should take into consideration user-needs including search habits and all the different ways the same information contained on a database can be accessed. 114).īefore embarking upon the design of an IR system, user-needs have to take precedence, since an IR system does not exist in a void. ![]() Designing, querying, and evaluating databases is a “process of inquiry, of interacting with the materials of the situation to see how they respond” as a means of creating solutions (Weedman, 2008, p. Information retrieval (IR) is multi-faceted and incorporates vocabulary design, metadata, user research, website structure, digital asset management, navigation, to name a few. In basic terms, how you store information determines how you retrieve that information. CORE COMPETENCY E: Each graduate of the Master of Library and Information Science program is able to: design, query, and evaluate information retrieval systems. ![]()
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