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 (2006). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Search

Internal Search: Seven Ways to Ensure Your Users Can Find Your Information  

User Vision's top seven tips on how to ensure your internal search is capable of meeting the needs of your users.

Rourke, Chris. User Vision (2008). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>Search

Does Advanced Search Sound Too Advanced?

Should advanced search be called something else to sound more friendly and inviting, and would it make more people to use it when they need to?

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Search>User Centered Design

Where's the Search? Re-Examining User Expectations of Web Objects

In 2001, Bernard determined that users were able to form a schema for the location of web objects on informational websites. The current study investigates whether users' expectations have changed since the 2001 study. Changes were found in the expected location of the site search engine, internal links, and advertisements.

Shaikh, A. Dawn and Kelsi Lenz. Usability News (2006). Articles>Web Design>Search>User Centered Design

Search Words Versus Carewords

The words we use when we search are not always the words we like to read when we arrive at a website. Over the years, I have discovered that the way we think and the words we use when we search give strong clues as to what we want, but only clues. The words that will help us complete the task we came to the website to complete can be subtly-and sometimes substantially different-to the words we used when searching for it.

McGovern, Gerry. CMSwire (2009). Articles>Web Design>Search>User Centered Design

Investigating Behavioral Variability in Web Search  

Understanding the extent to which people’s search behaviors differ in terms of the interaction flow and information targeted is important in designing interfaces to help World Wide Web users search more effectively. In this paper we describe a longitudinal log-based study that investigated variability in people’s interaction behavior when engaged in search-related activities on the Web. We analyze the search interactions of more than two thousand volunteer users over a five-month period, with the aim of characterizing differences in their interaction styles. The findings of our study suggest that there are dramatic differences in variability in key aspects of the interaction within and between users, and within and between the search queries they submit. Our findings also suggest two classes of extreme user--navigators and explorers--whose search interaction is highly consistent or highly variable. Lessons learned from these users can inform the design of tools to support effective Web-search interactions for everyone.

White, Ryen W. and Steven M. Drucker. WWW 2007 (2007). Articles>Web Design>Search>User Centered Design

Using the Repertory Grid and Laddering Technique to Determine the User's Evaluative Model of Search Engines    

The purpose of this research is to explore a method for the determination of users' representations of search engines, formed during their interaction with these systems. Determines the extent to which these elicited "mental models" indicate the system aspects of importance to the user and from this their evaluative view of these tools.

Johnson, Frances C. and Sarah E. Crudge. Journal of Documentation (2007). Articles>Web Design>Search>User Centered Design