YouPivot: Improving Recall with Contextual Search
Venue
CHI 2011, ACM Press, pp. 1521-1530
Publication Year
2011
Authors
Joshua Hailpern, Nicholas Jitkoff, Andrew Warr, Karrie Karahalios, Robert Sesek, Nik Shkrob
BibTeX
Abstract
According to cognitive science literature, human memory is predicated on contextual
cues (e.g., room, music) in the environment. During recall tasks, we associate
information/activities/objects with contextual cues. However, computer systems do
not leverage our natural process of using contextual cues to facilitate recall. We
present a new interaction technique, Pivoting, that allows users to search for
contextually related activities and find a target piece of information (often not
semantically related). A sample motivation for contextual search would be, 'what
was that website I was looking at when Yesterday by The Beatles was last playing?'
Our interaction technique is grounded in the cognitive science literature, and is
demonstrated in our system YouPivot. In addition, we present a new personal
annotation method, called TimeMarks, to further support contextual recall and the
pivoting process. In a pilot study, participants were quicker to identify websites,
and preferred using YouPivot, compared to current tools. YouPivot demonstrates how
principles of human memory can be applied to enhance the search of digital
information.
