Designing for Findability: 10 Tips for Search Experience Optimization
•
0 likes•231 views
Tyler Tate gave a presentation on designing for findability in search experiences. He discussed how people search differently based on their expertise level and the specificity of their task. Novice users prefer simpler interfaces while experts want more control. Recall tasks are straightforward lookups while exploratory tasks have no single answer. Tate then provided 10 best practices for designing findable search experiences, such as making the search box prominent, providing auto-suggestions, and using facets and visualizations to filter large result sets.
Recommended
More Related Content
Viewers also liked
Viewers also liked (16)
Similar to Designing for Findability: 10 Tips for Search Experience Optimization
Similar to Designing for Findability: 10 Tips for Search Experience Optimization (20)
More from Lucidworks (Archived)
More from Lucidworks (Archived) (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Designing for Findability: 10 Tips for Search Experience Optimization
- 1. Findability: Designing the Search Experience Tyler Tate, TwigKit Wednesday, August 18, 2010
- 2. About Today’s Presenter Tyler Tate tyler@twigkit.com Tyler is the co-‐founder of UK-‐based TwigKit Ltd., where he is focused on designing truly usable search interfaces. Tyler has led user experience design for enterprise applica=ons from CMS to CRM, is the creator of the popular 1KB CSS Grid, and organizes a monthly enterprise search meetup in London. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 2
- 3. Agenda How do people search? Slides are posted for Experts vs. Amateurs download at the end of this Specific vs. Open-‐ended Tasks presenta9on; full replay available within Recall vs. Explora=on ~48 hours of live webcast Immediate vs. Itera=ve How can we design for findability? © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 3
- 4. Agenda How can we design for findability? 1. Make the searchbox obvious 2. Provide as-‐you-‐type sugges=ons 3. Show number of results found 4. Use descrip=ve =tles, hit highligh=ng, and visited links 5. Use 'top hits' to show more info on key results 6. Never let "0 results" happen 7. Use breadcrumbs 8. Make metadata clickable 9. Show count of matches per filter 10. Use meaningful facet visualisa=ons © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 4
- 5. Why should I care about design? In order to know what to build, we first need to know a bit about the people we're building for. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 5
- 6. How do people search? © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 6
- 7. Experts vs. Amateurs People vary be their... Search exper=se (familiarity with common design paerns) Domain exper=se (knowledge in a certain area) Experts prefer... More complex interfaces that give them increased control Amateurs prefer... A simpler interface that minimises confusion © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 7
- 8. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 8
- 9. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 9
- 10. Experts vs. Amateurs looking up a fact reading a scien=fic journal Exper,se © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 10
- 11. Specific vs. Open-‐ended Tasks Tasks vary by their specificity During open-‐ended tasks, users desire greater simplicity For highly specific tasks, users appreciate greater complexity © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 11
- 12. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 12
- 13. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 13
- 14. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 14
- 15. Specific vs. Open-‐ended Tasks looking up a fact booking a flight Task Specificity © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 15
- 16. Exper,se & Task Specificity Exper,se Task Specificity © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 16
- 17. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. •Concept screen by IDEO 17
- 18. Exper,se & Task Specificity moderate co hi ple complexity m gh xit y Bloomberg scien=fic research Exper,se moderate complexity booking a flight web search lo w co Task Specificity m pl ex it y © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 18
- 19. Recall vs. Explora,on User’s goals vary between... Recall (straighborward lookup of facts) Explora=on (more about the journey than the des=na=on) Recall... Solved by matching a query to the right result Explora9on... There is oden no correct answer, but the goal is the insight gained along the way © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 19
- 20. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 20
- 21. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 21
- 22. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 22
- 23. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 23
- 24. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 24
- 25. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 25
- 26. Immediate vs. Itera,ve Users sometimes find what they’re looking for after one query When the goal is recall and the task is specific But not usually When the goal is explora=on or the task is open-‐ended © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 26
- 27. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 27
- 28. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 28
- 29. Immediate vs. Itera,ve Illustra,on by Marcia Bates © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 29
- 30. How can we design for findability? © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 30
- 31. The Searchbox © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 31
- 32. 1. Make the searchbox obvious It should look like a searchbox, feel like a searchbox, and act like a searchbox © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 32
- 33. 1. Make the searchbox obvious It should look like a searchbox, feel like a searchbox, and act like a searchbox © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 33
- 34. 2. Provide as-‐you-‐type sugges,ons Reduces spelling errors Boosts users’ confidence Globrix, eBay, Last.fm © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 34
- 35. Search Results © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 35
- 36. 3. Indicate the number of results found Few results can be a potential red flag Numerous results can boost users’ confidence © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 36
- 37. 4. Use descriptive titles, hit highlighting, visited links Use descriptive, 7-‐12 word titles (don’t use filenames!) Hit highlighting helps users quickly parse the results Visited link color helps users remember where they’ve been The Guardian © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 37
- 38. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 38
- 39. 5. Use 'top hits' to show more info on key results When there is a high probability that the first 1-‐3 results are what the user is looking for, top hits provide additional information to help users make their decision © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 39
- 40. 6. Never let “0 results” happen “No result” screens are a roadblock to users Use “or” instead of “and” Use automatic spelling corrections and related searches © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 40
- 41. Faceted Naviga,on © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 41
- 42. 7. Use breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs describe what the user is looking at, how he got there, and – in case of mistakes – how to get back Always allow users to easily remove filters Wireframe by Greg Nudleman © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 42
- 43. 8. Make metadata clickable Clickable metadata enables organic filtering of the results © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 43
- 44. 9. Indicate the number of matches for each filter Filter counts give users a more complete picture of the result set © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 44
- 45. 9. Indicate the number of matches for each filter Filter counts give users a more complete picture of the result set Visual indicators can help quicken comprehension © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 45
- 46. 10. Use meaningful facet visualisations A meaningful visualisation makes complex information tangible © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 46
- 47. 10. Use meaningful facet visualisations A meaningful visualisation makes complex information tangible TED © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 47
- 48. 10. Use meaningful facet visualisations A meaningful visualisation makes complex information tangible Starbucks © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 48
- 49. 10. Use meaningful facet visualisations A meaningful visualisation makes complex information tangible New York Times © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 49
- 50. 10. Use meaningful facet visualisations A meaningful visualisation makes complex information tangible © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 50
- 51. © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 51 •IBM
- 52. Learn More Read Peter Morville’s book “Search Patterns” hp://searchpaerns.org/ Read my article “The Scent of Search” hp://johnnyholland.org/2010/07/05/the-‐scent-‐of-‐search/ Read Marti Hearst’s book “Search User Interfaces” hp://johnnyholland.org/2010/07/05/the-‐scent-‐of-‐search/ Check out Endeca’s design pattern library hp://searchuserinterfaces.com/ Follow TwigKit’s blog, “The Dao of Search” hp://blog.twigkit.com/ © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 52
- 53. Q&A Slides are available for download at h4p://bit.ly/design4search Full replay available within ~48 hours of live webcast Thanks for listening! Your thoughts are welcome! Ping me at tyler@twigkit.com, @tylertate, or @twigkit © 2010 Lucid Imagina,on, Inc. 53