Search Pages and Results
LIS 385E: Information Architecture and Design
By: Alex Chung
10-05-04
What do We Search?
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Entertainment: mp3, music, movies…
Education: journals, books…
Work: Programming functions, software
tutorials…
Purchase: best deals, users rating and
recommendation…
Living related information: recipe, driving
directions, maps, news…
Why do We Search
To get results
 To save time
 To find related and similar topics
 To provide further browsing and searching
activities
“Fill our information need”
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Why does our website need search?
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Search helps when there is too much
information to browse
Search helps fragmented sites
Search should be there because users expect it to
be there
Design pattern
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Have search features that are useful and usable.
Pay attention to which words users type in.
How to present the results
How customers interact with the result
What happens if users cannot find what they
want
Major Search Engines:
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Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, Lycos, Ask Jeeves, AOL
Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Netscape Search, WiseNut,
Inktomi, Teoma, LookSmart, AllTheWeb.com, Open
Directory, Overture…
**Simple search forms**
Basic layout of search engines
Basic Search Options
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Search in Plain English
For new Web searchers
 AltaVista, Google, Hotbot, Lycos, Northern Light, but
not Yahoo!
 Rephrasing
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Searching for Multiple Words and Phrases
AND
 OR
 NOT
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AND Search
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Used by most people
Default search option on Google, HotBot
Others
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Search for Monet AND Pissarro
Search for +Monet +Pissarro
OR Search
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Result in very large number of hits
Default search tool on AltaVista
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Search for automobile car
Search for automobile OR car
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NOT
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Search for coffee “Java”, not programming language
“Java”?
Search for: Java –programming
 Search for: Java NOT programming
 Search for: Java AND NOT programming
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Be ware of throwing away some good stuff.
 Really know what you are looking for.
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Search Results
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Recall: the ratio of the number of retrieved relevant documents to the
number of total documents in collection.
# of relevant documents retrieved
= -----------------------------------------------# of total documents in collection
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Precision: the ratio of the number of retrieved relevant documents to
the number of retrieved documents.
# of relevant documents retrieved
= -----------------------------------------------# of relevant documents in collection
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If focusing on recall, it often produce a lot of junk. If focus on
precision, it is possible that it might miss some important information.
Search Result Pages
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Provide relevant summaries with the search
results.
Offer clear organization of the Search Results.
Provide good hyperlinked titles for each hit.
Use log files to tailor results for the most comon
search terms (popularity).
Common misspelling checks.
Provide support for common search tasks.
Original Query
The statistics of numbers
of the results found
Spell Checks
Page or document titles
URL of returned page
Page
summaries
Links to the next
set of results
Provide chance to
search again
Organized vs. Unorganized
Organized search results are more appealing
12
10
8
# of participants 6
4
2
0
12
6
1
2
0
Strongly Disagree Neutral
Disagree
Agree
Response Scale
http://www.mooter.com/
http://www.google.com/
Strongly
Agree
Organized vs. Unorganized
Organized search results are more useful when searching for
information
10
10
8
8
# of
participants
6
4
2
0
1
2
0
Strongly Disagree Neutral
Disagree
Agree Strongly
Agree
Response Scale
http://www.mooter.com/
http://www.google.com/
Organized vs. Unorganized
Total Satisfaction
12
10
8
# of participants 6
4
2
0
10
11
9
6
3
2
0 0
Strongly
Disagree
0
1
Neutral
Response Scale
http://www.mooter.com/
http://www.google.com/
Strongly
Agree
Mooter
Google
Can’t find Results?
Easy to type in the search again
Clear unsuccessful
search message
suggestions
for searching again
IA
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Search Design
Keep search tool in a consistent place
on every page.
Straightforward search forms.
Appearance.
Meaningful description.
Result Organization.
Open a new window.
Help/Support.
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Reference
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Schlein, M. Alan(1999) Find it Online: the Complete Guide to
Online Research. Tempe,AZ: Facts on Demand Press
Morville, Peter(1999) The Internet Searcher’s Handbook. New
York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
Ackermann, Ernest and Hartman, Karen(1999) The
information Specialist’s guide to searching &researching on the Internet
& WWW. London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
Hock, Randolph(2001) The Extreme Searcher’s Guide to Web
Search Engines. New Jersey: CyberAge Books.
Glossbrenner, Alfred and Glossbrenner, Emily(2001) Search
Engines for the WWW. Berkeley, CA: PeachPit Press.
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Reference
Morville, P., Rosenfeld, L. B. & Janes, J. (1999) The
Internet searcher’s handbook : locating information, people,
and software. 2nd Edition. Neal-Schuman Publishers,
Inc. NY, USA.
 Van Duyne, D., Landay, and Hong, J. (2003) The
Design of Sites. Addison-Wesley, MA, USA

 Large,
Andrew and Hartley, R.J.(1999)
Information Seeking in the Online Age: Princeples
and Practice. UK: Bowker-Saur.
 www.searchenginewatch.com