Fishnet, a fisheye web browser with search term popouts: a comparative evaluation with overview and linear view

Abstract

Fishnet is a web browser that always displays web pages in their entirety, independent of their size. Fishnet accomplishes this by using a fisheye view, i.e. by showing a focus region at readable scale while spatially compressing page content above and below that region. Fishnet offers search term highlighting, and assures that those terms are readable by using "popouts". This allows users to visually scan search results within the entire page without scrolling.The scope of this paper is twofold. First, we present fishnet as a novel way of viewing the results of highlighted search and we discuss the design space. Second, we present a user study that helps practitioners determine which visualization technique--- fisheye view, overview, or regular linear view---to pick for which type of visual search scenario.