The Search Interaction Optimization Toolkit – The Essence of my PhD Thesis

My PhD thesis introduces a novel methodology that is named Search Interaction Optimization (SIO) and is used for designing, evaluating and optimizing search engine results pages (so-called SERPs). As a proof-of-concept of this new methodology, I’ve developed a corresponding SIO toolkit, which comprises a total of seven components¹ (most of which have already been introduced in previous posts):

1. Inuit, a new instrument for usability evalutation;
2. WaPPU, a tool for Usability-based Split Testing;
3. a catalog of best practices for creating better usable SERPs, which together with WaPPU and a special add-on forms
4. S.O.S., a tool for automatically evaluating and optimizing SERPs;
5. TellMyRelevance! (TMR), a novel pipeline that predicts the relevance of search results from client-side interactions;
6. StreamMyRelevance! (SMR), a streaming-based version of TMR that works in real-time rather than batch-wise; and
7. a set of requirements for current & future search interfaces, which has been derived from an empirical study with German-speaking users.

Describing the design and development of the above components and evaluating their effectiveness and feasibility makes for a major part of my thesis. Now, I’ve finally managed to organize all of them in terms of GitHub repos², which I make available through a new website I have specifically created for my PhD project: http://www.maxspeicher.com/phdthesis/. In particular, on that site you can filter the components depending on whether you want to design, evaluate and/or optimize a SERP. It also lists all of the related publications including links to the corresponding full texts (via ResearchGate). In case you are actually interested in all that fancy research stuff³—have fun browsing, reading & playing around! 🙂

¹ The logo of the SIO toolkit features only six tiles because S.O.S. and the catalog of best practices are treated as one component there.
² Because my PhD project was carried out in cooperation with Unister GmbH (Leipzig), unfortunately it’s not possible for me to provide the source codes of all components via GitHub, as some contain company secrets.
³ Which I doubt. 😉