Designing the Search Experience: The Language of Discovery

Dr.Tony Russell-Rose, FBCS CITP
UXLabs, London UK

Tony Russell-Rose, PhD
Director, UXLabs
 ~20 years experience in applied research + technology innovation at
HP Labs, BT Labs, Canon, Reuters, Microsoft, Endeca
 PhD in natural language interfaces, MSc in human-computer
interaction, first degree in engineering (human factors)
 Author of “Designing the Search Experience: the information
architecture of discovery”, Elsevier 2012
 4 patents for search user interface design. 70+ scientific and
technical papers on information retrieval and user experience
 Honorary Visiting Fellow at City University London, Centre for
Interactive Systems Research
 Vice-chair of the BCS Information Retrieval specialist group. Chair of
the IEHF HCI group. Founding chair of Search Solutions conference
Industry Expertise
 Government
 Media & publishing
 Healthcare
 eCommerce
 Business intelligence
Domain Expertise
 Search & information
retrieval
 Speech & language
interfaces
 Information architecture
2UXLabs: User Experience Research + Design + Analytics - www.uxlabs.co.uk

User Experience Research and Design - www.uxlabs.co.uk 3

UXLabs: User Experience Research + Design + Analytics - www.uxlabs.co.uk 4
“This a huge change to the overall user experience. It transforms the way we
think, and opens opportunities to use search in a disruptive fashion. I love it!”
“Personally, I think people will get annoyed with it. The interface itself isn't
anything new, and it’s an outdated concept. When you think about state-of-
the-art search, it should be less about searching and more about finding.”
“I’m excited to see how this will affect our searching habits. It has proven to
be very useful and intuitive in my research work. In fact, it has also opened
perspectives that I would otherwise have missed. Fantastic!”
“I can't stand it - it’s a hindrance not an aid. It slows me down. It is an
unnecessary feature that has ruined the interface. I am so annoyed that I
have to manually turn this nonsense off”

Where should the Faceted
Navigation menu be located and
how should it be organised?

How should we present mixed
content results to help users discover
the most relevant and useful items?

TaskUser Mode
 Analyze
 Compare
 Evaluate
 Explore
 Locate
 …
Context
 Spatio-temporal
 Social
 Environment
 Information Assets
 The latest Harry Potter
book…
 Shoes to match my
interview suit …
 An affordable
entertainment system …
 Electronics Engineer
 Purchasing Agent
 Novice Shopper
 Technical Enthusiast
 …

EXPERTISENovice
Uncertain
Expert
Confident
Users vary in their technical and domain expertise
Novice
Shopper
Tech
Enthusiast

I need to find
part number
2335456
SCOPE
Focused
Simple
Broad
Complex
Electronics
Engineer
I need to discover
compatible parts
that work for my
assembly
I need to
understand part
obsolescence &
manage our
risks
User goals vary in scope & complexity

COMPLEXITYSimple
Homogeneous
Highly Faceted
Diverse

Marchionini, 2006
• Lookup
• Learn
• Investigate
Morville, 2010
• Quit
• Narrow
• Expand
• Pearl-growing
• Pogo-sticking
• Thrashing
Ellis, 1993
• Chaining
• Browsing
• Differentiating
• Filtering
• Monitoring
• Extracting
• Verifying

 Literary mode:
 a broad, but identifiable literary method, mood, or
manner that is not tied to a particular form or genre
(Wikipedia)
 Discovery mode:
 a broad, but identifiable discovery activity that is
not tied to a particular context or domain

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 End user information needs:
▪ Find best offers before the others do so I can have a high margin
▪ Get help and guidance on how to sell my car safely
▪ Understand what is selling by area so I can source the correct stock
▪ See year-on-year ad spend trends forTV and online
▪ etc.
 Moderated, normalised, prioritised
 Enterprise search + site search

Locate Verify Monitor Compare Comprehend
Scenarios
15UXLabs - User Experience Research and Design - www.uxlabs.co.uk
 Partially inductive
 Apply known models
 Partially deductive
 Identify new types of
behaviour

 “While our goal over the long term may be a
parsimonious few, highly effective tactics, our
goal in the short term should be to uncover as
many as we can...Then we can test the tactics
and select the good ones. If we go for closure
too soon… we may miss some valuable
tactics.”
 - Marcia Bates, 1979

 “Understand the quality performance of a part and module
set in manufacturing and the field so that I can determine if I
should replace the part” – Engineering
 “Understand a lead’s underlying positions so that I can
assess the quality of the investment opportunity” – Portfolio
manager
 “Understand the cost drivers for this commodity so I can
negotiate better terms with my suppliers and forecast
business risk” – Procurement
 Comprehend:
 To generate independent insight by understanding the nature of
meaning of an item or data set

 “Gain visibility into the parts my colleagues are using in
order to find the best possible part for my assembly” –
Engineering
 “Identify dealers at risk of failing and at risk of de-
branding based on performance problems” – Account rep
 “identify problem/success areas and where to intervene
and reward” – SVP sales
 Explore:
 To investigate an item or data set for the purpose of
knowledge discovery

Lookup
• Locate
• Verify
• Monitor
Learn
• Compare
• Comprehend
• Evaluate
Investigate
• Explore
• Analyze
• Synthesize

 MyTwitter home page
allows me to:
 Monitor tweets,
followers, interactions
 Explore trends, topics,
suggestions
 Locate tweets, people,
hashtags
 Synthesize new tweets,
retweets

 The modes provide the verbs
 e.g. Explore <object> in order to achieve <goal>
 Objects can be people, events, topics, processes…
 But languages also have a grammar…
 Scenario analysis: multiple modes
 Framework reveals common patterns
 Repeating sequences of 2-3 modes
 Composite chains

 Replace a problematic part
(from sourcing, cost, or
technical perspective)…
 … with an equivalent or
better part
 … without compromising
quality or cost
Analyze
Compare
Evaluate

 Exploratory search
 Identify opportunities to optimize use of tooling capacity for my
commodity/parts
 Strategic oversight
 Monitor & assess commodity status against strategy/plan/target
 Strategic insight
 Understand a lead's underlying positions so that I can assess the
quality of the investment opportunity

EvaluateAnalyzeExplore
EvaluateAnalyzeMonitor
EvaluateComprehendAnalyze

 Insight-driven search
 Assess the proper market value for my car
 Opportunity-driven search
 Find useful stuff on my subject topic
 Qualified search
 Find a van that meets a customer's requirements
ComprehendAnalyzeExplore
EvaluateLocateExplore
VerifyLocate

 A commonTwitter
sequence:
 Explore an author’s
profile & activity
 Analyze their activity,
followers, tweets
 Evaluate the author and
their relevance/value
 = Exploratory Search
EvaluateAnalyzeExplore

Comprehend
Locate
Verify
Evaluate
AnalyzeExplore Comprehend

Analyze Comprehend
Compare
Verify
Synthesize
Evaluate
Monitor Analyze
Explore

 Site search
 Emphasizes ‘Lookup’ modes
▪ e.g. Locate,Verify
 Enterprise search
 Emphasizes ‘Investigate’ modes
▪ e.g. Analyze, Evaluate
 More diverse patterns
 Longer, composite chains

Applying the insights

Availability of IR
research models
Usage by design
practitioners

Research
insights
Design
interventions

1. Map search modes to screen components
2. Create views by combining components
3. Compose applications by combining views

 Locate, verify, explore

 Create views by combining components
 Communicate conceptual relationships through
Gestalt principles (e.g. similarity, closure, proximity,
etc.)
Monitor
Evaluate
Analyze

 Compose applications by combining views
Data
Source
A
Data
Source
B
Data
Source
C
Metric
s Bar
Metric
s Bar
Metric
s BarData
C
Data
B
Data
A
analyze
compareevaluate
monitor

Discovery modes
• A lens for understanding information-seeking behaviour
• A language for describing composite patterns
• Can be applied both analytically and generatively
Site Search vs. Enterprise Search
• Common modes, but different patterns
• Shorter chains, less embedding
Implications
• We can’t evaluate what we don’t understand
• We need to see ‘search’ as part of a broader task lifecycle

 Search Usability: Filters & Facets
 Training course at CILIP London, 12-Oct-2016
 Search Solutions, BCS London, 29-Nov-2016
 Innovations in search and information retrieval
 Tutorials 30-Nov-2016
 Evaluation workshop 01-Dec-2016

Dr.Tony Russell-Rose, FBCS CITP
Director, UXLabs
 Web: http://uxlabs.co.uk
 Email: tgr@uxlabs.co.uk
 Blog: http://isquared.wordpress.com
 LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonyrussellrose
 Twitter: @tonygrr

Designing the Search Experience: The Language of Discovery

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