The benefits of visual searching

In our previous video we learnt how to create a search strategy and then save it and create a shareable link to it. In this video, we learn how to use visual approaches to make our searches smarter and more efficient.

Let's return to the previous example where our research question concerned the role of physical activity in preventing obesity in older people. One of the immediate benefits of the 2D approach is that it you can see hit counts for each search block, displayed in the top right hand corner. You can use these to better understand which parts of your search to focus on when optimising your query.

Another benefit is that if you want to experiment with different combinations of blocks, you can simply enable or disable them on demand. This allows you to examine the individual contribution that each of them makes. You can of course re-enable any of the blocks at any time to reinstate them in your search.

Now let’s suppose that the focus of your research question changes to the role of physical activity in preventing obesity in younger people. Rather than starting the whole search over again, 2DS offers a neat trick: the ability to import ready-made blocks into your search. So to change the focus from older to younger people, you can simply disable the block for older people, then import a block for younger people.

In this way 2Dsearch behaves like visual lego: you can combine and recombine blocks at will, limited only by your imagination. 

In our next video, we’ll look at how to use different visualization approaches to optimise your search.