Search Patterns KMWorld 2010

transcript

morville@semanticstudios.com

Search PatternsMaking Maps for Knowledge Discovery

Peter Morville

in•for•ma•tion ar•chi•tec•ture n.

• The structural design of shared information environments.

• The combination of organization, labeling, search, and navigation systems in web sites and intranets.

• The art and science of shaping information products and experiences to support usability and findability.

• An emerging discipline and community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.

“Search is among the most disruptive innovations of our time. It influences what we buy and where we go. It shapes how we learn and what we believe.”

Illustrated by Jeff Callender, Q LTD

$earch Metrics

Home Depot• Conversion rate increased over 30% in first two weeks.• Double digit increase in average order size.

Cabot Corporation• Technical information downloads increased by 48%.• Email and telephone inquiries reduced by 21%.

Sigma-Aldrich• Increased successful searches from 53% to 83%. • Increased site traffic to the final product detail page by 80%.

“A leading e-commerce site reported a revenue increase of $370 million in the year following launch.”

Source: Endeca

Marcia Bates: Berrypicking, Evolving Search (1989)

Search is a…Complex, Adaptive System

Source: Search Patterns (2010)

Principles of Design

Incremental Construction

Progressive Disclosure

Immediate Response

Predictability

Alternate Views

Recognition Over Recall

Minimal Disruption

Direct Manipulation

Context of Use

Incremental Construction Progressive Disclosureone step at a time… more within reach…

Immediate Response Predictabilityflow requires feedback… feed-forward features and results…

Direct Manipulation Context of Usetapping into muscle memory… the delight is in the details…

Realtime Search

Mobile Search

Kiosk Search

TV Search

There is one timeless way of building.

It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been.

The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way.

It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way.

And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form, as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.

The Timeless Way of Building Christopher Alexander

Window Place (180)

Everybody loves window seats, bay windows, and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them.

May be part of:• Entrance Room (130)

• Zen View (134) • Light on Two Sides (159) • Street Windows (164)

May contain:

• Alcoves (179)• Low Sill (222)• Built-In Seats (202)• Deep Reveals (223)

A Pattern LanguageChristopher Alexander et al.

Behavior Patterns

Design Patterns

27Because typing (and typos) take time.

Auto-Complete Auto-Suggest

30In search, results must be simple, fast, and relevant.

Source: Marti Hearst’s Search User Interfaces (2009)

37Because users don’t know where to look.

40Multiple ways to search (and browse) in combination.

"laptop" > $910 - $1070 > Hewlett Packard > At least 1 GB > 14 - 15 Inch > Bluetooth > 4 - 5 lbs

Structured Results

Actionable Results

Redefining Search

Question Answering

Decision Making

Understanding

Pattern Recognition

What We Search

How We Search

BrainPort

Camera in glasses captures video.

Image recreated on grid of 400 electrodes.

User feels the shape on the tongue.

Brain learns to see through the tongue.

find·a·bil·i·ty n

The quality of being locatable or navigable.

The degree to which an object is easy to discover or locate.

The degree to which a system or environment supports wayfinding, navigation, and retrieval.

am·bi·ent adj

Surrounding; encircling; enveloping (e.g., ambient air)

the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime

I follow a plant that tweets. Her name is

pothos and she lives in Toronto with Angela, an

information architect. When pothos is thirsty,

she asks for help. Sometimes days pass before the

water comes.

Bruce Sterling once noted, "Futurism

doesn't mean predicting an

awesome wonder; rather it means

recognizing and describing a small

apparent oddity that is destined to

become a great commonplace."

Ubiquitous Service Design

by Peter Morville

“People keep pretending they can make things deeply hierarchical, categorizable, and sequential when they can’t.

Everything is deeply intertwingled.” Ted Nelson

“Information is blurring the lines between products and services to create multi-channel, cross-platform, trans-media, physico-digital user experiences.” Peter Morville

Augmented Reality

iPhone Sensors

• Location (GPS)• Orientation (Compass)• Motion (Accelerometer)• Orientation/Motion (Gyroscope)• Touch (Multi-Touch, Gestural)• Light (Ambient)• Proximity• Device (Bluetooth)• Audio (Microphone)• Image/Video (Camera)• RFID (Soon)

68The URL Is Dead, Long Live Search

Over 50% of REI online business is picked up in a store.

Cross Media Integration

Source: Subject to Change (2008)

Desktop

Mobile

My Shelf

What is Information Architecture?

http://www.maya.com/the-feed/what-is-information-architecture

in•for•ma•tion ar•chi•tect n.

An individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data, making

the complex clear.

I mean architect as used in the words architect of foreign policy …as in the creating of systemic, structural, and orderly principles

to make something work.

The person who creates the structure or map of information

that allows others to find their personal paths to knowledge.

The Original Information Architect

“Aboriginal Creation myths tell of the legendary totemic beings who had wandered over the continent in the Dreamtime, singing

out the name of everything that crossed their path - birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes - and so singing the world into

existence.”

The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin

Animals use a combination of egocentric and geocentric techniques for wayfinding.

Ambient Findability by Peter Morville

“Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn, this map by Charles Joseph Minard

portrays the losses suffered by Napoleon’s army in the Russian campaign of 1812.” Edward Tufte

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/posters

85http://niemann.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/my-way/

Service Design

The difference between products and services is more than semantic. Products are tangible objects that exist in

both time and space; services consist solely of acts or process(es), and exist in time only.

The basic distinction between ‘things’ and ‘processes’ is the starting point for a focused investigation of services.

Services are rendered; products are possessed.

Services cannot be possessed; they can only be experienced, created or participated in. Though they are

different, services and products are intimately and symbiotically linked.

How to Design a Service by G. Lynn Shostack (1982)

“I’m an information architect. I map paths and places across physical, digital, and cognitive spaces.” Peter Morville

“A picture can connect the strategic with the tactical in a way no other communication form possibly can.” Dave Gray

Dave Grayhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/davegray/5072115549/

Peter Morvillehttp://findability.org/archives/000640.php

Up The Stairs “How do we make it easier for people

to learn about multi-channel possibilities?”http://findability.org/archives/000640.php

Visual Thinking Unwritten Rule #1

“Whoever best describes a problem is the person most likely to solve the problem.

…or, whoever draws the best picture gets

the funding.”

• Hybrid between design, engineering, and marketing.

• No definitive formulation.

• Considerable uncertainty.

• Complex interdependencies.

• Incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements.

• Stakeholders have radically different world views.

• It’s a project and a process.

• The problem is never solved.

Search is a Wicked Problem

IA Therefore I AmPeter Morvillemorville@semanticstudios.com

Search Patternshttp://searchpatterns.org/

Semantic Studioshttp://semanticstudios.com/

Bloghttp://findability.org/

Search Patterns KMWorld 2010

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