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Nowadays, exponential growth in online production and extensive perceptual power of visual contents (i.e., images) complicate the users’ information needs. The research has shown that users are interested in satisfying their visual information needs by accessing the image objects. However, the exploration of images via existing search engines is challenging. Mainly, existing search engines employ linear lists or grid layouts, sorted in descending order of relevancy to the user’s query to present the image results, which hinders image exploration via multiple information modalities associated with them. Furthermore, results at lower-ranking positions are cumbersome to reach. This research proposed a Search User Interface (SUI) approach to instantiate the non-linear reachability of the image results by enabling interactive exploration and visualization options. We represent the results in a cluster-graph data model, where the nodes represent images and the edges are multimodal similarity relationships. The results in clusters are reachable via multimodal similarity relationships. We instantiated the proposed approach over a real dataset of images and evaluated it via multiple types of usability tests and behavioral analysis techniques. The usability testing reveals good satisfaction (76.83%) and usability (83.73%) scores.

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The existing image search engines allow web users to explore images from the grids. The traditional interaction is linear and lookup-based. Notably, scanning web search results is horizontal-vertical and cannot support in-depth browsing. This research emphasizes the significance of a multidimensional exploration scheme over traditional grid layouts in visually exploring web image search results. This research aims to antecedent the implications of visualization and related in-depth browsing via a multidimensional cubic graph representation over a search engine result page (SERP). Furthermore, this research uncovers usability issues in the traditional grid and 3-dimensional web image search space. We provide multidimensional cubic visualization and nonlinear in-depth browsing of web image search results. The proposed approach employs textual annotations and descriptions to represent results in cubic graphs that further support in-depth browsing via a search user interface (SUI) design. It allows nonlinear navigation in web image search results and enables exploration, browsing, visualization, previewing/viewing, and accessing images in a nonlinear, interactive, and usable way. The usability tests and detailed statistical significance analysis confirm the efficacy of cubic presentation over grid layouts. The investigation reveals improvement in overall user satisfaction, screen design, information & terminology, and system capability in exploring web image search results.