How to understand and design search for users.

1. UNDERSTANDING
USERS’ SEARCH INTENT
Mags Hanley
Search Solutions 2013
27 November 2013

2. WHAT DO I MEAN
‘SEARCH INTENT’?

3. What do users want?
Problem or need
Content, services or
products
Enterprise, company
or service
Good
search
results

4. Example
The kids are off
for half-term
Things to do
Museums
Theatre
Kids’ activities
Events in
London
Kids’
workshop
at the
Science
Museum

5. EXERCISE IN INTENT AND
FACETS

6. Results
Term
Users’ intent
Facet/ structure
free
I’m cheap.
Pricing
brunch
Full English vs. eggs benedict
Mealtimes
jazz
My music tastes are
sophisticated.
It’s a logical place to find this
information.
Music genres
Les Miserables
Is the DVD out for Christmas? Name
I want to see the theatre
musical.
Italian
Pasta anyone?
Cuisine
Shoreditch
What’s local to me?
Area
kids
It’s half term, what can we
do?
Audience
today
I’m bored – what can I do?
Date
clubbing
Let’s dance!
Subject

7. What does this exercise show us?
• Know the content in context
• Les Miserables in London – theatre, movie, DVD,
• Les Miserables in Paris – book, play, movie, DVD
• Know the time of the year
• Today – immediacy of the search – ‘Give me something good’
• Ice skating – in winter
• Festivals – in summer
• Know the users’ mental model in context
• Location – zone, village and postcode
• Music terms per country, even though music is international

8. What’s urban music?
It’s black - NY
It’s a scene - London

9. SEARCH SYSTEMS

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

11. USERS’ INTENT

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

13. Supporting intent in the search interface
OR
What
Where
Clapham
Clapham
Clapham Common
Clapham Junction
When
All dates
Search

14. Other search input models
Gig finder
1. Choose a music genre
All (1234)
Blues, roots & country(62)
Cabaret & standards (9)
Classical & opera (96)
Dance music (25)
Folk (87)
Jazz (67)
Kids' music (25)
Pop, rock & hip-hop (87)
R & B (56)
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 | >>

15. Facet use in different countries
Paris facet use
New York facet use

16. Facet use in different countries
London facet use

17. CONTENT STRUCTURED
TO SUPPORT INTENT

18. Matching intent in the content
Does 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.
• Sort codes and branch details for a retail bank
• Mealtimes in Time Out – more popular than cuisines. Is
the content tagged or have keywords in the content?

19. Location in London
Levels 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?

20. PRESENTING RESULTS
TO SUPPORT INTENT

21. Support 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.

22. WHAT CAN YOU DO?

23. 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

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