Section Four

4.2 Bates, M.J. (1989). Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for Online Search Interface. Online Review, 13, 407-424.

Bates uses the berrypicking metaphor to describe her model because it reflects the nature of how information is gathered. Clusters of information, like berries, congregate in certain areas and in order to collect all of the relevant data, one must change strategies and tactics like a berry-picker. In this document, Bates argues that the berrypicking model more closely resembles the actual nature of searching, as users do not perform one search and one search only. By applying these principles, Bates argues that interface design could better represent the needs of the user.

A few years ago, I took a course offered at Rutgers as an undergrad called Principles of Cognitive Science. Towards the end of the semester we learned that it is possible to apply the principles from that class to determine the meaning of famous works of art. Simply by studying the asymmetries in the painting, the expression and emotion were determined. It would be remarkable if a search engine could apply the same principles to find information about an image, instead of simply determining the meaning. While mainstream search engines like Google and Yahoo allow the user to search for images, it does so by sifting through the words tagged to the pictures. It would be interesting if the user were able to submit a picture and have the system analyze the curvature and lines in the image in order to retrieve the title or any other words surrounding the picture. While I do not see this feature being a heavily used engine, it would certainly be helpful if one really liked a print, but could not find any of the artist's information.

Prior to reading this article, I strictly followed abstract and index searches for my school assignments. Occasionally I would visit the library to collect a book, but other than that, I did not contemplate other methods of searching. Through this article, I was able to see numerous ways to gather information. I have already employed some of these methods for both my individual and group projects. After getting one article from Library Quarterly, I sifted through it on a journal run and did not find good results; yet one of the best resources I have discovered came through footnote chasing the same article.