User interface evaluation of a direct manipulation temporal visual query language

Abstract

As new query interfaces emerge for accessing multimedia data, formal user studies are needed to evaluate the usability of such interfaces. In this paper, we present results from a user interface evaluation of our temporal visual query language (TVQL). TVQL is a novel direct manipulation query interface for specifying temporal relationship queries over temporal events such as video data. In our user study, we compare TVQL to a forms-based temporal query language (TForms). Our results indicate that while subjects took longer to learn TVQL than TForrns, they were more efficient and more accurate in specifying temporal queries with the TVQL interface than with the TForms interface.