VISUAL QUERY SYSTEMS FOR DATABASES - A SURVEY

Visual query systems (VQSs) are query systems for databases that use v isual representations to depict the domain of interest and express rel ated requests. VQSs can be seen as an evolution of query languages ado pted into database management systems; they are designed to improve th e effectiveness of the human-computer communication. Thus, their most important features are those that determine the nature of the human-co mputer dialogue. In order to survey and compare existing VQSs used for querying traditional databases, we first introduce a classification b ased on such features, namely the adopted visual representations and t he interaction strategies. We then identify several user types and mat ch the VQS classes against them, in order to understand which kind of system may be suitable for each kind of user. We also report usability experiments which support our claims. Finally, some of the most impor tant open problems in the VQS area are described. (C) 1997 Academic Pr ess Limited.