Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Stephen Turbek

Stephen Turbek — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:06:56 GMT

Thanks all!

I’m sure others would be as interested as I in hearing about your experience managing advanced search on your site. For example, what % of searches were “advanced”?

Stephen Turbek — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:14:22 GMT

Thanks christina,

I agree that this idea doesn’t solve all advanced search problems, particularly your problem of web searching, given the lack of meta data search engines have at their disposal. Other people, such as some of the commenters, may find it useful.

I’m not sure I agree with the idea that all the ideas have been tried, and that UX people should simply follow what search engines do. Indeed as Amanda Spink writes in your interview “One major problem is that [designers of] search engines tend to think that one technique will do it!” As any UX person knows, what gets built is the result of many opinions and business needs, not only what the UX team recommends.

The example you show, although unrelated in function to this article, does highlight some of the practices I was trying to get at in the article. This feature does appear in the user’s standard path, which is excellent. However, it is hardly visible. Much like traditional advanced search, I doubt many users even see it, which must reduce usage. On the page, http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=sopa+de+lima one doesn’t see those suggestions at all. (They are hidden within a triangle icon thingy) If you do open it, the feature doesn’t communicate a benefit to the user (What does “explore concepts” mean anyway?). I agree that it probably gets very little usage, but have to suspect that if it wasn’t hidden and was clearly explained it would get more.

Interestingly, I see that since I started writing the article Yahoo has dropped advanced search from its home page altogether. On search results pages it is hidden under an “options” menu, (which strikes me as a dubious design decision.) Given the experience of the many people working on it, do you recommend we all do the same?

Stephen Turbek — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 02:44:10 GMT

Great comments everybody!

Eric, I completely agree that searching should be taught in school. If kids are starting book reports with a web search, as I’m told they are, they need to know how to search well. More and more information is being put online, filtering out the noise is going to become a critical skill.

For any of you that may try these ideas out, let us know how it works. I’ve had success in a recent set of usability tests, but I am by no means a disinterested party!

Stephen Turbek — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:25:59 GMT

NIce article!

I agree that personas are too often just a deliverable done out of habit. Here are some thoughts on how to make actionable personas that executives can use: http://www.stephenturbek.com/2008/03/how-to-make-personas…

Here’s an example of personas done wrong:
http://consumerist.com/368894/leaks-best-buys-internal-cu…

“The most important part this new world order is the “persona.” Personas are essentially stereotypes that Best Buy’s salespeople study in order to sell their most profitable services to different “types” of customers. Young urban males are called “Buzz.” Upper middle class women are known as “Jill.”“