The Age of Findability

It doesn't replace information architecture. And it's really not a school or brand of information architecture. Findability is about recognizing that we live in a multi-dimensional world, and deciding to explore new facets that cut across traditional boundaries.

Morville, Peter. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>Search

Coming to the Aid of the Search Party

There is a definite logic to getting your company its critical share of search-engine visibility.

Miller, Nick. Sydney Morning Herald (2006). Articles>Usability>Search>Eye Tracking

Creating Usable, Search Engine Friendly URLs

There are many reasons to use mod_rewrite to create informative, useful URLs for your website. Most dynamic websites use some form of PHP or ASP to pull the data from the database and often times use that data in the URL as a string. This is not only a potential security flaw, it also gives the user and search engine alike a very uninformative destination for your website.

Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search Engine Optimization>Usability

Half Web Searchers Enter One Query, Look at One Page of Results

Over 66% of searchers examine fewer than five results with more than one in three Web searchers viewing only on one document in a given session. Users' search strategies are not those believed traditionally effective, but a close analysis reveals they work well on the Web.

Light, Ann. Usability News (2003). Articles>Usability>Search

Home Stayers And Trench Diggers

This paper offers some observations on the ways 9 to 12 year children search for information on websites and how this may differ from the search behaviour of adults.

Hudson, Roger. Usability.com.au (2002). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

Information Foraging: Why Google Makes People Leave Your Site Faster

The easier it is to find places with good information, the less time users will spend visiting any individual website. This is one of many conclusions that follow from analyzing how people optimize their behavior in online information systems.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

Mental Models For Search Are Getting Firmer

Users now have precise expectations for the behavior of search. Designs that invoke this mental model but work differently are confusing.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Articles>Usability>Search>Cognitive Psychology

The Truth About Google's So-Called "Simplicity"

Anybody can make a simple-looking interface if the system only does one thing. If you want to do one of the many other things Google is able to do, oops, first you have to figure out how to find it, then you have to figure out which of the many offerings to use, then you have to figure out how to use it.

Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

Usability: A Key Issue for Kids' Sites

The children starting primary school this year can be truly described as the first of the web generation, for all were born after 1992 when the World Wide Web as we know it today came into existence. The ability of web sites to stimulate and satisfy the needs of these kids, along with those of all other web users, will largely depend on web site usability.

Hudson, Roger. Usability.com.au (2000). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

When Search Engines Become Answer Engines

The website is becoming a less prominent locus of experience as people use search engines to bring up answers to their current questions. How can sites cope with masses of freeloaders?

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2004). Articles>Usability>Search

关于 Google 界面所谓的“简洁性”的真实情况

Google 的真实情况是怎样的呢？回答是：它并不简洁。 瞧，我喜欢 Google。它是个很棒的搜索引擎，但是我比较反感听到有人表扬它的外观优雅而简洁。见鬼，所有的搜索引擎都有一部分是优雅而又简洁的：在输入框中输入要查询的词语，然后按“回车”键。 “不”，有人会马上反对说：“Google的搜索页面是那样的简洁、优雅，没有和其它的功能挤在一起”。

Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2006). (Chinese) Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search

Findability/SEO Cheat Sheet: Quick Guide to Web Standards SEO

A findability strategy cheat sheet that will guide you through all of the stuff you should be doing when creating new websites or even redesign existing ones.

Walter, Aarron. AarronWalter.com (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Search Engine Optimization

Readability, Browsability, Searchability Plus Assistance

Readability, browsability, and searchability do not have to be equally represented in every information system. As your collection of information increases, different aspects of these qualities take on greater significance. Thus, the amount of readability, browsability, and searchability your information system exhibits depends on the type and quality of your collected data, as well as the information needs of your clientele.

Morgan, Eric Lease. Infomotions (2004). Articles>Information Design>Usability>Search

Starting from Zero: Winning Strategies for No Search Results Pages

Search results pages are some of the most visited pages on typical e-commerce sites—to say nothing of a search engine like Google. Many articles appear each year about optimal search algorithms, database performance, and the like. In contrast, very few publications focus on improving the search experience from the customer’s perspective.

Nudelman, Greg. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>Usability

Best Practices for Designing Faceted Search Filtersn

Recently, Office Depot redesigned their search user interface, adding attribute-based filtering and creating a more dynamic, interactive user experience. Unfortunately, Office Depot’s interaction design misses some key points, making their new search user interface less usable and, therefore, less effective. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the Office Depot site presents us with an excellent case study for demonstrating some of the important best practices for designing filters for faceted search results.

Nudelman, Greg. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>Usability

Internal Site Search Analysis: Simple, Effective, Life Altering!

Now when people show up at a website, many of them ignore our lovingly crafted navigational elements and jump to the site search box. The increased use of site search as a core navigation method makes it very important to understand the data that site search generates.

Kaushik, Avinash. List Apart, A (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>Usability