This document provides examples and best practices for search and filter interfaces. It discusses types of searches people conduct, key considerations for designing search interfaces, and examples of different interface elements and interactions. Sections cover search initiation and navigation, results presentation, relevancy, personalization, and taking action on results. The document aims to help people design more effective search experiences.

1. Search & Filter Interface Round Up
EXAMPLES & BEST PRACTICES
Prepared by:
Amy Cueva – Founder, Chief Experience Officer
October 19, 2009

2. Mad Pow
Mad*Pow Fact Sheet
Experience Design Studio: Founded:
Product Design
g 2000 by Amy Cueva and Will Powley
y y y
Interaction Design
Contextual Inquiry
Headquarters:
Ethnographic Research
Historic Portsmouth, NH
Task Flow Analysis
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Usability Testing
Information Architecture Staff:
Visual Design 28 Employees
Prototyping
yp g Officers
Interactive Media Directors
E-business Strategy Designers
Market Research Creative Technologists
Development
p Strategists
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Salespeople
Administrators
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3. Mad Pow
Mad*Pow Clients
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4. 4

5. Search & Filter: Topics
Types of Searches
Key Considerations
Search Initiation and Navigation
Results Presentation
Relevancy, P
R l Personalization and Taking Action
li i d T ki A i
Questions?
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6. Types of Searches
How do people search? What are they looking for?
Search Engines A phone number
Embedded Site Search A sweater
E-Commerce Search A plane ticket
Intranet/Local Search A document
Online, mobile, desktop A song
applications, kiosk, phone
interfaces,
interfaces voice interfaces
interfaces, A person
p
asking a live person
Any piece of information
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7. Types of Searches
I want to…
Find a specific piece of information: There is one answer.
A zip/postal code, the temperature in a location, a specific person
Find and compare pieces of information: There is more than one answer.
Movie times, a type of person, restaurants, books on a topic
Gain a level of understanding, do research and make a decision:
The answer depends on the person doing the search.
Where should I go on vacation? What do these symptoms mean?
What is the best…
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8. When designing a search interface, consider:
interface
Who is visiting? What do they need?
What makes audience members different? Are there any important
?
characteristics about them to consider?
Have they been here before? What have they done? Do we know
y y
anything about them? Can that be used to make the results more
relevant?
How did they get here? What lead up to this interaction? What is driving
them?
What are they looking for? How will they expect to find it? (Search
Terms)? Where will they want to look?
What do they want to see? What content or functionality would be most
useful relevant to them? Will they need any related information?
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9. When designing a search interface, consider:
interface
Who is visiting? What do they need?
How will they know when they’ve found what they are looking for?
H ill th k h th ’ f d h t th l ki f ?
How will they compare results? What are their decision making
attributes? What’s important/most relevant to them?
How will they want to interact? What would the ideal interaction be?
Will they sort, refine results, zoom in/out, navigate topically, compare,
“pogo-stick” (J Spool), save, favorite, rate, comment, share, email, print?
How will they use this information? What will they need to do with it?
What will they do after? How can that be supported?
Will they be back again? Will they need the information from this
search?
Would they want search results like this on a regular basis?
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10. What can be done? What will YOU do?
What can be done to understand the visitor?
Search logs, site stats, analytics
Site survey/customer survey
User research: User interviews, contextual inquiry, observation
Usability testing: before, after, and during
How early can you do these things? How often? Can they be part of an
ongoing process?
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11. What can be done? What will YOU do?
Making it happen…
What is it? What are the priorities? How do you determine priorities?
What should be done in the future?
What can be done right now?
What can be done with the technology? What can’t?
Who are you working with? How can you collaborate?
Is your search effective? How will y measure success?
y you
How will search relevancy be monitored and improved on a regular
basis?
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12. Interface & Interaction Design Checklist:
Home (pre-search):
What will be shown?
Most recent searches?
Most recently clicked through on?
Most popular?
Recommended searches?
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13. Interface & Interaction Checklist:
Search Box:
Placement, priority, design, labeling
Focus, return, tabbing
Pre-population,
P l i
Type ahead, spell check, interactivity, related searches
“Codified”
“C difi d” searches
h
Search Terms:
What terms should be anticipated?
Wh t t h ld b ti i t d?
Will there be a spell check/did you mean feature?
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14. Interface & Interaction Checklist:
Display of Results:
What
Wh t content/media will be displayed?
t t/ di ill b di l d?
Will there be content available on hover?
Will the content be expandable/collapsible?
Will related content be shown?
Can a click through be avoided by showing the right information in
the results?
How will the results be organized?
How will the results be prioritized?
How will they be filtered and sorted?
Will topical navigation or faceted navigation be available?
p g g
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15. Interface & Interaction Checklist:
Manipulation of Results/Interaction with Results:
Sort, filter, zoom in/out, navigate
Organize, Drag & drop,
Take action, save, share, email print
Rate, comment, contribute, suggest
Show similar/more like this, remove
Browse, hover, click through/view
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How many results per page, pagination
How will the content load/flow in?
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16. Familiar Search Interfaces
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17. Newer Search Interfaces
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18. Newer Search Interfaces
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19. Newer Search Interfaces: Aggregators/Federated Search
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20. Aggregators/Federated Search
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21. Peek-a-boo Search
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22. Type Ahead Search
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23. Advanced Search
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24. Faceted Navigation & Filters
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25. Faceted Navigation & Filters
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26. Faceted Navigation & Filters
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27. Faceted Navigation & Filters
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28. Pagination
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29. “Zoom In and “Zoom Out
Zoom In” Zoom Out”
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30. Information Visualization
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31. Information Visualization
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32. Information Visualization
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33. Information Visualization
33

34. Information Visualization
34

35. Information Visualization
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36. Results > Detail Browse
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37. Results > Detail Browse
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38. Results > Detail Browse
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39. Results > Detail Browse
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40. Results > Detail Browse
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41. Results Presentation: Granularity Levels
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42. Results Presentation: Federated Search Results
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43. Results Presentation: Federated Search Results
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44. Results Presentation: Federated Search Results
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45. Results Presentation: Federated Search Results
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46. Results Presentation: Rich Results Presentation
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47. Results Presentation: Rich Results Presentation
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48. Results Presentation: Presentation Options
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49. Relevancy and Taking Action: Relationships & Nearness
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50. Relevancy and Taking Action: Relationships & Nearness
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51. Relevancy and Taking Action: Community Tagging, Rating, and Ranking
Tagging Rating
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52. Relevancy and Taking Action: Implicit vs. Explicit Personalization
vs
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53. Relevancy and Taking Action: Implicit vs. Explicit Personalization
vs
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54. Relevancy and Taking Action: Individual Manipulation of Results
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55. Relevancy and Taking Action: Individual Manipulation of Results
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56. Relevancy and Taking Action: Individual Manipulation of Results
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57. Relevancy and Taking Action: Saving and Sharing Results
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58. Relevancy and Taking Action: Generating Results Feeds
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59. Questions?
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