Report on ACM SIGIR 2006 workshop on evaluating exploratory search systems

Abstract

Exploratory search systems (ESS) are designed to help users move beyond simply finding information toward using that information to support learning, analysis, and decision-making. The evaluation of the interactive systems designed specifically to help exploratory searchers is a challenging area, worthy of further discussion in the research community. In this article we report on a workshop conducted in conjunction with the ACM SIGIR Conference in Seattle, USA, in August 2006. The workshop involved researchers, academics, and practitioners discussing the formative and summative evaluation of ESS.