A multi-dimensional view on information retrieval of CMS data

The CMS Dataset Bookkeeping System (DBS) search page is a web-based application used by physicists and production managers to find data from the CMS experiment. The main challenge in the design of the system was to map the complex, distributed data model embodied in the DBS and the Data Location Service (DLS) to a simple, intuitive interface consistent with the mental model of physicists analyzing the data. We used focus groups and user interviews to establish the required features. The resulting interface addresses the physicist and production manager roles separately, offering both a guided search structured for the common physics use cases as well as a dynamic advanced query interface.