Abstract
Large result sets stemming from topical queries on the Web tend to cause disorientation and are often reduced to a manageable size through successive exclusions (NOTing) and/or restrictions (ANDing) which also reject relevant documents. The information visualization (IV) technique known as spatialization is a scalable automatic process creating a topographical map metaphor of the semantic information space. The domain of IV offers many prototypes, some controlled experiments but few low‐cost testing methods which are critical in the early stages of the design process. This communication reports on efforts to adapt the low‐cost BASSTEP approach to the evaluation of the IV technique known as spatialization by isolating and evaluating (using paper mock‐ups) information features of a spatialized Web corpus in the context of Web IR. Six (6) semi‐structured formative interviews provide a list of most expected initial user interpretations of four (4) features and three (3) additional interviews attempt to triangulate the findings when these features are integrated into a single interface mock‐up. This work hopes to verify if the application of the BASSTEP approach is applicable to spatialized visualisations early in the design process improving the usability of this visual IR tool.