World IA Day 2013 - Is Search IA?

IS SEARCH IA?Mags HanleyWorld IA Day, Bristol9 February 2013

SEARCH VS. BROWSEA story

EXERCISE IN INTENT ANDFACETS

ResultsTerm Users’ intent Facet/ structurefree I’m cheap. Pricingbrunch Full English vs. eggs benedict Mealtimesjazz My music tastes are Music genres sophisticated.Les Miserables Is Russell Crowe as bad as Name the reviews? I want to see the theatre musical.Italian Pasta anyone? CuisineShoreditch What’s local to me? Areakids It’s half term, what can we Audience do?today I’m bored – what can I do? Dateclubbing Let’s dance! SubjectCliff Richard Calendar anyone? Name

SEARCH SYSTEMS

Search systemPeter Morville – In Defence of Search – December 7, 2001http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000004.php

USERS’ INTENT

Modes of information seeking Marcia Bates – Modes of Information Seeking Http://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/info_SeekSearch-i-030329.html

Intent in the search interface OR What Where When Clapham All dates Search Clapham Clapham Common Clapham Junction

Other search input models Gig ﬁnder 1. Choose a music genre All (1234) Blues, roots & country(62) Jazz (67) Cabaret & standards (9) Kids music (25) Classical & opera (96) Pop, rock & hip-hop (87) Dance music (25) R & B (56) Folk (87) World (76) 2. Choose a date March Today | Tomorrow | This weekend W T F S S M T W T F S S M T 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | >>

Other search input modelshttp://www.engadget.com/2011/10/15/siri-ported-to-an-iphone-4-old-phone-learns-a-new-trick/

CONTENT STRUCTUREDTO SUPPORT INTENT

Intent in the contentDoes it match what users are looking for?Some examples:• Product numbers of panel boards and switches, searched by contractors and engineers. The company didn’t structure the content to allow this to happen.• Mealtimes in Time Out – more popular than cuisines. Is the content tagged or have keywords in the content?

Location in LondonLevels of granularity• Postcode (TW9 2SU)• Street (Oxford St)• Town/village (Hammersmith, Camden)• Area (South-West London)• City-wide (London)• How do we allow people to search them all? Do we even capture this information?

PRESENTING RESULTSTO SUPPORT INTENT

Intent in the results• Search results – do you show the information in the results people are asking? Enough to make a decision?• Business goals – are you consciously showing the content the business wants to promote? Does it enhance the user experience?• Content types – are we showing the information people want? More events for a music search; more venues for restaurant search.

DEBUNKING THE MYTHSOr why search is IA and not technical!

SEARCH IS NOTTECHNICAL OR MYSTICAL

Analytical, not technicalYou need to:• Do granular analysis to understand the patterns• Perform benchmarking of results• Prototype search results ordering by knowing exactly the impact of each decision like boosting of tags and search field indexing• Understand your content, structuring for patterns and search as well as browse• Show the working (this is where it is like A Level maths!)

Example – boosting by tags in Solr Data element or tag Additional score Rating score 5 100 4 80 3 60 2 40 1 20 Bookable 20

Example – boosting tags in SolrSearch Current results With boostsBurgers 1. London’s best burgers (0) 1. Honest Burgers (Brixton) - 5 star 2. The Burger Bar - 3 star (60) (100) 3. Honest Burgers (Soho) - 4 star 2. Honest Burgers (Soho) - 4 star (80) (80) 4. Guerrilla Burgers - 2 star and 3. The Burger Bar - 3 star (60) bookable (60) 4. Guerrilla Burgers - 2 star and 5. Honest Burgers (Brixton) - 5 star bookable (60) (100) 5. London’s best burgers (0)

Logical, not Mystical• Reject “It’s how it is set-up” from the technical team. It can be tuned based on rules, someone needs to define them.• Most of us don’t work for Google – don’t need a maths PhD to do this. BUT some basic maths is useful; think Venn diagrams• Understand the content and business requirements. They will suggest the algorithm.• And if you are not this way inclined – find someone who is.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Activities• Review your search logs and interface analytics• Analyse the interface and failing searches to see intent and understand ways to change it• Test it in usability sessions – talk aloud when typing in queries and what the people expected the results to be• Understand your content and how it matches to the intent of the users• Structure the content better and leverage in the interface or query engine

Thank you Mags Hanley Twitter: @magshanley LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/pub/margaret-hanley/0/180/3a5/

People• Peter Morville (http://semanticstudios.com)• Louis Rosenfeld (http://louisrosenfeld.com/home/)• Tony Russell Rose (http://isquared.wordpress.com)• Joe Lamantia (http://www.joelamantia.com)• Tyler Tate (http://tylertate.com)• Greg Nudelman(http://www.androiddesignbook.com/about-greg-nudelman/)

BooksInformation Architecture for the World Wide Webhttp://www.amazon.com/Information-Architecture-World-Wide-Web/dp/0596527349/findability-20/Designing the Search Experiencehttp://designingthesearchexperience.comSearch analytics for your sitehttp://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/searchanalytics/Search patternshttp://searchpatterns.orgDesigning Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Successhttp://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470942231.html

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World IA Day 2013 - Is Search IA?

by Margaret Hanley on Feb 11, 2013

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