  Searching large digital repositories can be extremely frustrating, as common
list-based formats encourage users to adopt a convenience-sampling approach
that favours chance discovery and random search, over meaningful exploration.
We have designed a methodology that allows users to visually and thematically
explore corpora, while developing personalised holistic reading strategies. We
describe the results of a three-phase qualitative study, in which experienced
researchers used our interactive visualisation approach to analyse a set of
publications and select relevant themes and papers. Using in-depth
semi-structured interviews and stimulated recall, we found that users: (i)
selected papers that they otherwise would not have read, (ii) developed a more
coherent reading strategy, and (iii) understood the thematic structure and
relationships between papers more effectively. Finally, we make six design
recommendations to enhance current digital repositories that we have shown
encourage users to adopt a more holistic and thematic research approach.
