Search Patterns: An Early Talk

Search Patterns a practical guide to the future Information that’s hard to find will remain information that’s hardly found. Peter Morville, IA Summit 2008

There is one timeless way of building.
It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been.
The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way.
It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way.
And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form, as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.
The Timeless Way of Building
Christopher Alexander

Window Place (180)
Everybody loves window seats, bay windows, and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them.
May be part of:
• Entrance Room (130)
• Zen View (134)
• Light on Two Sides (159)
• Street Windows (164)
May contain:
• Alcoves (179)
• Low Sill (222)
• Built-In Seats (202)
• Deep Reveals (223)
A Pattern Language
Christopher Alexander et al.

Search Patterns @ http://flickr.com/photos/morville/

Behavior Patterns

Design Patterns

A few good starting points suggested by humans.

Because users don’t know where to look.

Multiple ways to search (and browse) in combination.

Search Metrics (Endeca)
Home Depot
• Conversion rate increased over 30% in first two weeks.
• Double digit increase in average order size.
Cabot Corporation
• Technical information downloads increased by 48%.
• Email and telephone inquiries reduced by 21%.
Sigma-Aldrich
• Increased successful searches from 53% to 83%.
• Increased site traffic to the final product detail page by 80%.
“ A leading e-commerce site reported a revenue increase
of $370 million in the year following launch.”

Because little things make a big difference.

Structured Results

Social Search

Media Search Cool tools for finding music, images, video, and other non-text formats. Most rely on keyword search, but some allow users to query by shape, texture, color, sound, and other inherent properties of the objects they seek.

Mobile Search

Spime Search WineM A smart wine rack that uses RFID to track bottles in the rack and identify ones that fit the selection criteria. Collectors and restaurants can use WineM racks to search collections The wine can be dynamically reorganized by any combination of year, region, price, etc. A handheld device accepts queries, and full-color LED lights transform the rack and bottles into a search results interface. The system even supports faceted navigation.

Cisco Wireless Location Appliance “ A quick glance at the screen shows exactly where the tagged wheelchairs are located...Patients wait no more than a few minutes for a wheelchair, and we save $28,000 a month by eliminating searches.”

Redefining Search

My Shelf

Possible Futures of Search Concept Search Advertising Everything (Recall) Mobile Search Knowledge + Learning Tagging Local Search Ambient Findability Search Analytics Segregated Search Discovery (Un-Search) Faceted Navigation Technology Best Bets (Precision) Universal Search Users Spiritual Search Popularity Algorithms Semantic Search Unknown Unknowns Diversity Algorithms Social Search Re trieval (KFTF) Relevance Algorithms Query Disambiguation Visualization Video Search Text Analytics Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Personalization

Exploring Possible Futures Future History Design Concepts Social Network Analysis Competitive Analysis Prototypes & Specs Cross-Training Future Design (Ivrea) A/B Testing Innovation Games Wireframes (Sketches) Strategy Formation Black Swan Hunting Narrative (Strategy) Crowdsourcing Mental Models Myth, Metaphor, Magic Backcasting Goal & Task Analysis Forecasting Search Analytics Science Fiction Environmental Scanning Card Sorting Simulation Statistical Analysis User Interviews & Tests Prediction Markets Scenario Planning Ethnography Miscellaneous Tools and Methods User Experience Design

apophenia the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness in unrelated things

Search is a Wicked Problem
No definitive formulation.
Considerable uncertainty. Complex interdependencies.
Incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements.
Stakeholders have radically different world views and different frames for understanding the project or process.
The problem is never solved.

IA Therefore I Am
Peter Morville
[email_address]
Semantic Studios
http://semanticstudios.com/
Search Patterns
http://flickr.com/photos/morville
My Blog
http://findability.org/
This Presentation
http://slideshare.net/morville

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Search Patterns: An Early Talk

by Peter Morville on Apr 12, 2008

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