Exploring Visual Bookmarks and Layered Visualizations

Cultural heritage experts are confronted with a difficult information gathering task while conducting comparison searches. Saving searches and re-examining previous work could help them to do their work. In this paper we propose a solution in which we combine visual bookmarks for saving and re-examining information with the concept of layered interface objects for exploring data and spotting trends. We carried out an exploratory study in which we evaluated different mockups for visual bookmarks and a mockup for meta-comparison of two visualizations. In this study we found evidence for the added value of bookmarks for saving and re-examining information. We also found that the concept of visual bookmarks offers context and relevance, and the concept of layered interface objects can be a potential approach to ease the information gathering task. This paper first of all, contributes to a better understanding of the comparison task within the cultural heritage domain. Secondly, it justifies the possible use of bookmarks in a comparison search application and thirdly, it reports the evaluation of two concepts for easing the information gathering task, namely visual bookmarks and layered interface objects.