Contextual multi-dimensional browsing

Browsing efficiency depends to a large extent on the organization of the information being browsed. An emerging method of organizing Web content, called multi-faceted categorization, adopts a flat structure and treats different facets of the browsed content as equal and independent. The advantage of this structure is that it allows users to slice and dice the information space from any of the facets they wish to browse, and in any arbitrary order, thereby facilitating so-called multi-dimensional browsing. However, because of limited human information processing capacities, too many choices and too much browsing freedom tend to disorient users and increase the difficulty of information gathering. A more effective means of organizing information is therefore needed.In the literature, it is well documented that context plays a crucial role in making relevance judgments about categorical attributes. Since browsing always occurs in relation to certain contexts, we propose taking context into account for multi-faceted categorization to help organize different facets of information on the browsing interface. Our experiment results demonstrate that the context-sensitive arrangement of categories helps users find information more efficiently. Moreover, users perceive the context-sensitive interface as easier to use than non-contextual interfaces.