2. What we think happens when someone searches I need something about Penguins.
3. Wow! That search has provided me with exactly the penguin-related resources I need. My expectations have been exceeded. I’m a wholly satisfied user. I need something about Penguins. User Enters ‘Penguins’ in the search box Search happens User sees a list of search results
5. OR I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I need something about Penguins.
6. OR OR I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins.
7. OR OR OR I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need a picture of penguins. I need something about Penguins.
8. (A quick note about this user: This user will often *think* she knows what she’s looking for, but she actually doesn’t. This user doesn’t know what she doesn’t know. Example: I never went searching for hard-curing rubber cement, because I didn’t know it existed – I didn’t know that I didn’t know about it. By accident I found some called ‘sugru’, and now I use it all the time! Before finding sugru, I was this user.) I have absolutely no idea what I need.
9. These are the four basic types of search – pretty much every searcher will be one of these. I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need a picture of penguins. I need something about Penguins.
10. Known-item search Exploratory Don’t know what you need Re-finding I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need a picture of penguins. I need something about Penguins.
11. Known-item search Exploratory Don’t know what you need Re-finding ...which tells us things about what types of search terms our users are using... I have a good idea what search terms to use. I have a very good idea of what search terms to use. I have absolutely no idea what search terms to use. I have a vague idea what search terms to use. I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins. I need a picture of penguins.
12. Known-item search Exploratory Don’t know what you need to know Re-finding ...and how it’s going to end. My search experience has a definite end. My search experience has a definite end. My search experience has a pretty definite end. My search experience has no definite end. I have absolutely no idea what search terms to use. I have a good idea what search terms to use. I have a very good idea of what search terms to use. I have a vague idea what search terms to use. I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins. I need a picture of penguins.
13. So who are our biggest user groups likely to be?
14. Exploratory This one... My search experience has a pretty definite end. I have a vague idea what search terms to use. I need something about Penguins.
15. Don’t know what you need to know Exploratory And this one... My search experience has no definite end. My search experience has a pretty definite end. I have absolutely no idea what search terms to use. I have a vague idea what search terms to use. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins.
16. Don’t know what you need to know Exploratory My search experience has no definite end. My search experience has a pretty definite end. I have absolutely no idea what search terms to use. i.e. The two hardest ones! I have a vague idea what search terms to use. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins.
17. So how do we make a good search experience for people who don’t know quite what they’re searching for?
18. So how do we make a good search experience for people who don’t know what they’re searching for? We start with an audit of how search works.
19. So how do we make a good search experience for people who don’t know what they’re searching for? We start with an audit of how search works. Search has four steps: Indexing 2. Query management 3. Ranking of results 4. Results formatting
20. So how do we make a good search experience for people who don’t know what they’re searching for? We start with an audit of how search works. Search has four steps: Indexing This is where you create a complete table/database containing all the information that you want to be searchable about all the content in the system 2. Query management This is where the user enters a search term (‘query’) and it gets checked against the index 3. Ranking of results This is where the engine determines what order the results will be in when they’re shown to the user 4. Results formatting This is what the user sees in the results – the title, a description, a date created and so on
21. There are only four variables that we can control. Indexing This is where you create a complete table/database containing all the information that you want to be searchable about all the content in the system 2. Query management This is where the user enters a search term (‘query’) and it gets checked against the index. Using filters in included here. 3. Ranking of results This is where the engine determines what order the results will be in when they’re shown to the user 4. Results formatting This is what the user sees in the results – the title, a description, a date created and so on
22. How do we know what types of results our users expect?
23. How do we know what types of results our users expect? All our users are going to judge us – immediately – by the same standard:
24. How do we know what types of results our users expect? All our users are going to judge us – immediately – by the same standard:
25. How do we know what types of results our users expect? All our users are going to judge us – immediately – by the same standard: ...Which is a shame, because our search systems are totally different. Even with all the money in the world, we couldn’t do things the way google does – the open web and our closed system just don’t have enough in common.
26. Indexing Google indexes the text on the websites that make up the Web using ‘spiders’. The spiders pay attention to html fields like ‘header’. 2. Query management Google send user queries through its entire index. 3. Ranking of results Google ranks kindof socially - the more links people have made to a given page, the higher it’s ranked.* 4. Results formatting Google shows a title, some contextual text, and a URL. Special results have special formatting (e.g. images, news). *to be fair there’s a little bit more to it, but that’s the basic gist
27. Us Indexing Our content isn’t made of text, so we index metadata. We have strictly defined fields. A lot of our metadata (such as subject) is encoded. Query managementWe send user queries through our entire index, too, but we have added filters available (the tick-boxes). 3. Ranking of results We don’t have socially ranked content, so we have to rely on other mechanisms – such as placing different levels of preference on different fields in which data is stored. 4. Results formatting GGfL on demand currently shows Title, Description, Content provider, Subjects, Age, File size, Type, and method of access... Lots and lots of information, same for all result types. Indexing Google indexes the text on the websites that make up the Web using ‘spiders’. The spiders pay attention to html fields like ‘header’. 2. Query management Google send user queries through its entire index. 3. Ranking of results Google ranks kind of socially - the more links people have made to a given page, the higher it’s ranked.* 4. Results formatting Google shows a title, some contextual text, and a URL.
28. To generate good results, indexing and ranking are the really important bits. Us Indexing Our content isn’t made of text, so we index metadata. We have strictly defined fields. A lot of our metadata (such as subject code) is encoded. 3. Ranking of results We don’t have socially ranked content, so we have to rely on other mechanisms – such as placing different levels of preference on different fields in which data is stored. ...naturally, they’re also the hard bits.
29. At the moment we’re 100% focussed on building good metadata so we get a good index. It’s a fundamental step, but it’s not the only one. The best index in the world will still result in a poor search experience if the ranking isn’t up to scratch.
30. Known-item search Exploratory Don’t know what you need to know Re-finding OK, time to talk indexing and user experience! How can we make the structure of the GGfL index support them? How can we make the content of the GGfL index support them? I know exactly the penguin resource I need, I just can’t remember where it is. I have absolutely no idea what I need. I need something about Penguins. I need a picture of penguins.
31. Known-item search Exploratory Don’t know what you need to know Re-finding (But first let’s get rid of the penguins and change the user.) The nice thing about our users is that they work within constraints – Grade and Subject. We’ll get very few who have absolutely no idea what they’re looking for. Our new user is a KS3 history teacher, who is going to be teaching a class on the Victorians. I know exactly the video about the Victorians I need, I just want to find it again. I don’t know what’s in the Grid so I don’t know what to look for. I need something about the Victorians. I need a video about the Victorians.
32. Known-item search Re-finding Catered to by: strong keywording, intuitive filters, fast query management Can be assisted further by: Easy re-set Happy when: Item is found quickly. Not happy when: There are too many irrelevant results, interface distractions, and when search takes too long. Catered to by: the ‘My content’ tab, specifically by good bookmarking and easy retrieval of previously purchased content. Can be assisted further by: ‘recently viewed’ functions. Happy when: Re-finding is successful. Not happy when: Re-finding is not successful. I know exactly the video about the Victorians I need, I just want to find it again. I need a video about the Victorians.
33. Exploratory Don’t know what you need to know Catered to by: Clearly labelled filters, visible from the start of searching (e.g. if there’s a ‘videos’ option, then there must be videos), multiple starting points, expandable results Can be assisted further by: ‘related content’ links, socially generated links, mechanisms that encourage/enable search expansion (i.e. progressing the user from ‘known item’ to ‘exploratory’) Happy when: Positively surprised, finds more than expected Not happy when: Search is difficult, interface is unintuitive, no useful results, can’t understand how results have been generated. Catered to by: accurately grouped results (filters), multiple avenues for exploration, good keywording, accurate filtration with defined limits, refining/narrowing options (drill-down), classic ‘browse’ functions Can be assisted further by: multiple starting points, ‘related content’ links, socially generated links, functions that allow comparison between assets Happy when: Lots of interesting things turn up, serendipitous results turn up. Not happy when: Nothing interesting turns up, irrelevant results. I need something about the Victorians for my KS2 history class. I don’t know what’s in the Grid so I don’t know what to look for.
35. OK, so how are we doing with all that? At the infrastructure level - pretty good!
36. OK, so how are we doing with all that? At the infrastructure level - pretty good! We have the capacity to cater to all four user types, and we’ve got the filters in place, which is the most important feature for ‘exploratory’ and ‘don’t know what you need to know’ users. Our ‘five content types’ will help them too. Our ‘re-finding’ capacities aren’t great yet, but they will be. Our ‘known-item’ search options are pretty strong. Where there are flaws in the infrastructure, such as data we should capture but don’t, we know where they are.
37. OK, so how are we doing with all that? At the infrastructure level - pretty good! We have the capacity to cater to all four user types, and we’ve got the filters in place, which is the most important feature for ‘exploratory’ and ‘don’t know what you need to know’ users. Our ‘five content types’ will help them too. Our ‘re-finding’ capacities aren’t great yet, but they will be. Our ‘known-item’ search options are pretty strong. Where there are flaws in the infrastructure, such as data we should capture but don’t, we know where they are. At the metadata level, not so good just yet. Our filters aren’t yet well populated, our controlled vocabularies aren’t settled, we don’t and we haven’t formalised our schemas yet (i.e. the ways to capture the data we need). BUT we’ve got the bones of the infrastructure, and that means it can be fixed.
38. Especially if we keep in mind the search behaviours of our users, it can be fixed.
39. So when this lady comes along... I need something about Penguins.
40. ...Her search experience ends up just like this. Wow! That search has provided me with exactly the penguin-related resources I need. My expectations have been exceeded. I’m a wholly satisfied user.
