The poster session will feature poster representing work from the University of Washington community about various topics related to Information Studies. The poster session will be accompanied with food, catered by Bay Laurel, and beverages, including beer and wine.
The following are the posters scheduled to be featured at iEdge 2008's poster session from 6-9 PM.
You can also use the iEdge TiddlyWiki to navigate this information more dynamically.
A Comparative Study of Internet Search Engine UI's; Information Visualization -vs- Google's List
By: John Tulinsky, Kate Bogh
The presentation of information by internet search engines (SE) is a fundamental issue in regards to their usability. The vast majority of search engines display information in the form of a simple list. However, consider the difference between a map and a written description of a landscape. Information displayed in a visual format can possess a richness and density far surpassing that of a textual display. We have investigated the effect of search engine user interface (UI) on search effectiveness and user satisfaction during internet search. Our study was conducted on 24 test subjects who performed search exercises using two search engines that utilize a visual UI (quintura and kartOO) and one with a traditional text-based UI (google). Preliminary findings indicate that the text-based display of results is strongly preferred by users.
A Leadership Model in the Context of Russian Culture
By: Olga Popova
This study examines the impact of Russian folklore culture on the formation of a distinctive style of leadership. The Global Leadership Model produced by Black et al. is used to categorize the characteristics related to the Russian Leadership Model.
A Value-Added Analysis of the King County Metro
By: Mark Johnson
The King County Metro system comprises the buses, vans, and other vehicles that residents of Seattle and the surrounding area use exclusively for transportation throughout the county. While the Metro utilizes a number of methods to reduce congestion and pollution, it deals with this primarily through the bus system. This project is an analysis of the King County Metro based on Robert Taylor's Value-Added framework. It focuses on the usability of the Seattle bus system and the Metro website's Trip Planner from the perspective of typical users. Following the analysis are ways that the system can be improved, concluding with an assessment of Taylor's Value-Added model.
The poster will be a visual summary of the main points of the project, emphasizing and analyzing possible avenues of improvement for the Metro system, both in specific areas and as a whole.
Advanced Communications Platform
By: Patrick Mullen, Matt Ficken, Peter Brickey, Jay Zeng, Anh Tran
Our team is developing a new communications platform which combines some of the concepts of instant messaging, email, file sharing, scheduling, and social networking, into one application. The poster will represent some of the core functionality in this application, and show some of the research that has went into this project. We will also lay out some of our ideas and plans for the future of the product.
Our system was designed with the purpose of freeing users from dealing with mundane and technical details of email, so that they can focus on communicating with people. Based on our research into the problems and behaviors of email communication, the concepts we have developed provide users the right information at the right time all in one place.
Appropriating and Adapting eMail - ProcessRight Workflow Poster
By: Linda Lane, Jaggi Yadavadri, Mario Popish, Bill Marriott
This image shows both the wireframes/ paper prototypes and proposed graphics for an application which creates workflows and workflow approval processes for a software application called "ProcessRight". Group5 Poster for IMT540b MSIM2008 at the iSchool, University of Washington, Seattle Fall 2006. http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/316261962/
Bridge to the Future: Mobile Interaction for Physical Therapists in 2020
By: Al Youngblood
A futuristic wrist/eyeglasses device and simple eye movement/touch menu system were designed using data collected from a contextual inquiry of physical therapists at the UW Medical Center. The lightweight mobile device enables physical therapists to work within an interactive environment that speeds up information access, bridges communication between medical practitioners, and ultimately will improve patient care. Highlights of this project were presented before a select panel of Nokia, Microsoft, and Intel researchers during the fall quarter of 2007.
Comparing Search Engine Result Sets
By: W. Max Eichbaum, Evan Luckey
In this study, we used a sample of 65,000 queries, selected from a corpus of over 20 million real queries, to collected the top ten ranked results from Google, Yahoo and Live. Then, we used a variety of methods for comparing the difference between them.
Deep Web Resources for Biotechnology and Intellectual Property
By: Rebecca Kuglitsch
This poster presents poorly known government information resources for the study of biotechnology and intellectual property. By using the narrative example of the Enola bean dispute, particular resources are showcased. Deep web resources from the USPTO and USDA are highlighted in particular.
ICIS: One system to rul them all
By: Michael Canfield
Integrated-Consolidated-Information-System. Facilitation of information sharing by integrating technologies that interact with a consolidated corpus of contextual data. Surface computing, mobile wireless devices, flat panel displays, and RFID are of interest. Data defined by ICIS physical location.
Improving Reading Comprehension and Information Seeking Through the QuikScan Document Format
By: Quan Zhou
This poster showcases QuikScan - a new document format aimed at improving reading comprehension and information seeking in documents. QuikScan uses multiple within-document summaries and highlighting to emphasize the superordinate ideas (or gist) and spotlight subordinate but important details. The summaries appear immediately after each heading, summarizing the upcoming expanse of text. Each summary includes a numbered list of content items. Each number correspond to the same number in the main body of text where the summarized item is explained in full.
Two studies have been conducted to examine the effects of QuikScan on comprehension and information seeking. Those who used QuikScan documents scored significantly higher on comprehension than those who used the non-QuikScan version. Significant results were also found in the information seeking study.
This poster shows the design of QuikScan, demonstrates empirical findings, and explains current on-going research.
Metadata and localization: Comprising ideals in implementation
By: Kathleen Loebig
My poster will discuss the challenges of maintaining metadata best practices in localized implementations for digital libraries. While every metadata designer strives to achieve idealist implementations of their schemas, the real world often intervenes. Database and software limitations are just some of the obstacles that can force compromises in the implementation process. This poster will discuss the specific challenges faced when designing and implementing a metadata schema for a digital library of 78 rpm recordings.
Nursing Documentation Usage Analysis
By: Cindy Robertson
The poster will show how our project investigated the use of electronic patient documentation in the work context of VA nurses. The study was guided by the cognitive work analysis methodology which identified prominent themes in nursing workflow and documentation usage.
Search Bars
By: Colin Booth
SearchBars is an information system that informs UW students about bars in the U District. Our group has done some preliminary research on information system design, as well as field research in the form of surveys. This data was used to refine our design, which led to mobile and web mockup designs.
Space Tourism: These Trips Are OUt of This World
By: Alexander H. Bertea
"Space tourism" is a very recent phenomena that began in April, 2001, with the nearly eight day orbital flight of businessman Dennis A. Tito aboard the Russian spacecraft SoyuzTM-32 , and it has been growing in popularity ever since. Private space flight has been a dream of many Americans since Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969, and some of the pioneers of that era are at the forefront of these ambitious endeavors. This poster will provide an overview of the burgeoning field of private human spaceflight by examining historical antecedents, the first space tourists, and the future of private human space activity as seen through the perspective of government publications.
The Duwamish Tribe: A Struggle for Recognition
By: Laura Schick, Josh Polansky
Our poster is the culmination of our work in LIS 526, Government Documents. Using government resources and other research, we tell the story of the Duwamish Tribe, indigenous to the Seattle metropolitan area, and its repeated attempts to gain federal recognition as a Native American Tribe.
The Information Gap
By: Sarah Wang, Timotius Wibowo, Zakiya Qadir
We are a group of three non-Informatics students currently taking INFO 300 with Professor Eisenberg. The class has truly been an enlightening and rewarding experience for us. We would like to pursue our fascination with information science by participating in the iEdge Conference.
For iEdge 2008, we would like to raise awareness about the potential future of the widening information gap that separates developed countries from developing countries. We propose an approach to alleviate this gap by understanding the factors that affect the availability and the use of information and information technologies:
1. Intimidation, distraction, and/or avoidance of information due to information-overload.
2. Unawareness of the existence, or ignorance of the potentials, or the mere existence of information, due to information poverty.
3. How effective systems are in meeting users' needs.
In our poster, we will show the contrast in the uses of information through imageries in "desert vs. sea," statistical graphs, case studies, text analysis, and so forth.
The Pacific Northwest HAB Bulleton Pilot Project: Technical Development of an Ocean Observing Information System for the Protection of HUman Health
By: Sheryl A. Day
The Pacific Northwest HAB Bulletin Pilot Project, with support from the Centers for Disease Control, is a web-based comprehensive early warning information system for Washington coast HAB events. Traditionally,HAB-related data are maintained by separate organizations in a variety of formats, and no single system exists to capture the tacit knowledge of local experts who could identify trends and make calculated predictions based on collected data. This results in a lag time between acquiring, correlating, interpreting, and distributing HAB event information to coastal managers. The PNW HAB Bulletin Pilot Project builds upon the ORHAB (Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms) monitoring program by automatically aggregating HAB information - biological and physical data and summarized conclusions by local experts - into a single location. This dynamic, database-driven system is comprised of: Real-time drifter tracks, domoic acid toxin in shellfish, Pseudo-nitzschia data, winds, model currents, and local expert analysis describing the data and likelihood of HAB events. Open source and proprietary technologies were utilized - including custom scripts in UNIX, PERL, Visual Basic, andJavaScript, customized GIS and plot applications, a MySQL database, PHP, XML, and HTML - to automatically retrieve, manipulate, and present data from existing resources, including ARGOS satellite servers, websites, spreadsheets, and databases, with no extra effort required from the data providers.
Value Considerations in an Information Ecology: Printed Materials, Service Providers, and Homeless Young People
By: Jill Woelfer, Megan Yeung, Candice Erdmann
Value considerations are herein applied through analysis of an information ecology that has emerged to help homeless young people, ages 13 to 25. According to Nardi and O'Day (1999), an information ecology is "a system of people, practices, values and technologies in a particular local environment." The collaborating organization in this work consists of nine interconnected agencies that provide services for young people including shelter, drop-in, and various other programs. Each agency promotes the services of the others through brochures, maps and other printed materials that are displayed at each service location. Thus, homeless young people can become familiar with and move through the alliance's network of services by accessing individual agencies. Drawing on Value Sensitive Design, we sought to develop an understanding of this information ecology by conducting technical, conceptual, and empirical investigations. Collection and analysis of 250 printed materials was conducted, and surveys and semi-structured interviews were carried out with organization staff and volunteers as well as homeless youth. The results indicated that the values of human welfare, trust and autonomy were shared by agency staff and homeless young people. Also, of the print materials considered, a flier with a map of all programs was reported to be most important and distributed most frequently. Future work would further investigate distribution and usability of these portable information sources and the values they embody.
Web usability analysis tool
By: Kate Bogh, John Tulinsky
Tracing users' movements on the internet is useful for usability engineers especially in the development of web applications and web usability. There are a number of existing tools for usability engineers to use to trace users' web movements.
For the purpose of the search engine usability study (see separate poster) available free web tracing tools were examined. The tool chosen was DejaClick , a free add-on available through Mozilla which records URL's, search terms, think time, and actions completed while the user is online. DejaClick creates a large xml file that is meant to be reviewed [replayed, like a video] online. Unfortunately, there is no way to easily compare the results between xml files (i.e. between participants).
This poster presents the work needed to process and transform the DejaClick xml output into the format that is useful for the analysis of the search engine usability study data. For this purpose a schema was created that pulls the important data out of the xml files and returns the data in a readable fashion. A schema was created to read the xml data which is currently returned in html. The goal is to return the data in an Excel or Access document.
This tool will be a very useful to usability specialists who want a free, simple tool to track users' movements online.
Your Revolution
By: Brian Merrell
In short, Your Revolution is a versatile facebook application that allows residents of Washington state to register to vote without leaving facebook. The application also allows users to view how many of their facebook friends are registered to vote, and allows them to send invitations to add Your Revolution to anyone on that list. Beyond the registration aspect of the application, Your Revolution offers a unique and dynamic venue that is crafted specifically to foster activism. The creators of Your Revolution have been very conscious of the unique challenge of promoting activism while designing Your Revolution, and with this in mind they have created a new system for connecting individuals within the setting of facebook. Your Revolution offers a new group system that is dedicated specifically to facilitating activism and ties this in with other features of the application such as projects, tasks, and blogs.