Search & Sensibility
Four tales of search
Sept 2008
Louisa Cameron
Senior Experience Architect, USiT
News Digital Media

Search is unique, depending on
the context
“… a widespread and mistaken perception that
search is little more than a white search box
adorned with the occasional appealing graphics”
Marc Quantrill
Source: MAD Technology Weekly UK, Aug 2008

Searchers have different needs
“When I find an article I like,
I find myself clicking through
all the related stuff”
“It’s not like I’m looking for a job,
but if something better comes along…”

It is important to understand
behaviour patterns
“After asking thousands of people to think
about how they search, only one thing has
been consistent in our findings. People
don’t really know.”
Source: Google Eye Tracking report, Enquiro, Eyetools and Did-It, July 2005

Job seeker personas
1. Career based
Looking for dream job.
2. Change based
Seeking work-life balance.
3. Needs based
Return to work mother looking for local job.

Behaviour patterns of job seekers
1. Not brand loyal
2. Search using set criteria
3. Search every 3 days when active
4. Need to refine within results
5. Look at 5 or 6 pages of results

1. Job seekers are not brand loyal
• For general search, people probably use same
search engine every time they search
• There is an argument for designing similar to
competitors to create a consistent experience

2. Job seekers search using a set of
criteria

Is advanced search necessary?
\"Advanced search is the ugly child of
interface design - always included, but
never loved.\"
Stephen Turbek
Source: Boxes and Arrows, Jan 2008

Is advanced search necessary?

3. Job seekers refine within results

3. Job seekers refine within results

4. Active job seekers visit every 3 days
• Search on last 3 days
• Save search
• Show new listings

5. Job seekers look at 5 or 6
pages of results

In summary …
“Designers can better cater to what appears to be
chaos: make available those capabilities that
best support the range of known behavior
patterns for your target personas”
John Ferrara
Source: Boxes and Arrows, Jan 2008

Local Search
Tale 2/4
Angus Fraser
Senior Experience Architect, USiT
News Digital Media 1

Home page Results page

Interesting details
! Arrangement of fields & buttons
! Helping user’s construct better queries
! Encouraging Discovery

Placement of search fields
-“What can I do here?
I’m not sure what kind
of site this is”

Strong domain conventions

Conflicting convention
-“… the login fields
here are a waste of
space”

The “Search” button
“Don't use a 'Search' button for parametric search”
Jakob Nielsen (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20050509.html)

Search

Improving queries: Auto-suggest

Improving Queries: Auto-history

Encouraging discovery

Going with the flow

“Short head” with multiple faces

Guided Search
Tale 3/4
Scott Bryant
Senior Experience Architect, USiT
News Digital Media

4 key things
1. What do we mean by guided search?
2. The car buying process & search
3. Features of guided search
4. Multi-selection search scenario

What do we mean by guided search?
• A “Funnel\"
• More than just facets
• Exploratory search
• Provides “information
scent”
• Predictive of users
previous and next
steps
• Navigation paths built
on structured data

98,106 cars online
(Business goal #1)
“right car for you”

No zero results
(Business goal #2)

What we know about our users
• They don’t know what type of car they want or what their
money can buy
• The majority search for used cars, but are after recent
models
• Are seeking specific advice

1.Cars for sale

2.Car
Specifications

3.Car Values

4.Dealer
Search

5.Cars for sale –
Guided search
on mobile

Features of Guided Search Interface
Guided Search: Browse:
• Great for people who have an idea what they • Great for people who are unsure of what they are
want looking for
• Option to do a new and used combined search • The default will include new and used cars
• Advanced options available, i.e. number of seats, • Additional options available, i.e. transmission
power..

Results
Features
Indication of Research and
what has been reviews relevant
searched. to your search
Remove to
expand
Sets of
standard Information rich
expanded summary of
refinement results
dimensions
Secondary set
of further
refinement
dimensions

Comparing cars & multi-select

Final thoughts
The challenge for designing for guided
search comes down to balancing:
• Users information needs
• Constraints/Flexibility of structured data
• Context for use (search scenarios)
And keeping a complex system simple

Media Search
Tale 4/4
Chris Khalil
Senior Experience Architect, USiT
News Digital Media

What’s it all about?
1. Homepage is most important page?
2. Content Page
3. Using search to feed search
4. Anatomy of a Content Page
5. Finish

Traffic – Last Month
Page Impressions:
94,913,965
that’s a lot of traffic
The home page accounts for
less than half of that

From where
Email
Search engines
Blogs
Your Site Instant Message
Other Sites
Social Network Sites
Aggregators

Ecology
Pages don’t exist solely in the context of your IA
Search is really good nowadays

Content Page is the new
Homepage
How to drive traffic from search
Using search

news.com.au Storypage
A cul-de-sac
Not very
contextual
Interesting content
Limited exit points

New news.com.au Storypage
There’s loads
here

Most Related Links
I’ve read enough,
offer me
somewhere else
-News grazer

What now?
Reward me for
getting this far
- News hunter

Contextual Linking
If you liked that,
then you might like
this
Other topics

Body Topic Links
More Topics
Click here

Tell me more…
What’s been going
on with Qantas?

What search thinks of Qantas
Is this most
relevant or
most
articles?

So, is it working?
Early signs are positive
Significant uplift in PI’s

The real value of search

Questions or Suggestions?
• Louisa Cameron – Senior Experience
Architect, CareerOne.com.au
• Angus Fraser – Senior Experience Architect,
TrueLocal.com.au
• Scott Bryant - Senior Experience Architect,
CarsGuide.com.au
• Chris Khalil – Senior Experience Architect,
news.com.au