- Our Newest Report: “Site Content Search: User Experience Analysis”
- Jeff’s Essay: 8 Quick Ways to Fix Your Search Engine
- Only days until our User Experience Week in D.C. Join us!
- Let Us Buy You a Couple of Beers in Washington, D.C.
In this week’s newsletter, we launch Jeff and Darcy DiNucci’s report on best practices for site search, Adaptive Path wants to buy you a beer in Washington, D.C., and we’re heading to Toronto.
Our Newest Report: Site Content Search: User Experience Analysis
Adaptive Path Partner Jeffrey Veen and our very good friend Darcy DiNucci are launching our newest report to teach you how your search engine can make or break your site. This report will give you the tools you need to get search working.
Content sites live or die on the quality of their search features, yet some of the best Web sites have some of the worst search experiences. In this report, we deconstruct 10 examples of content search to figure out the good and bad search practices for today’s content sites.
Full of real-world examples, our survey of industry practices shows that Apple masks poor search results with pretty design, that CNN’s effort to squeeze a few extra dollars out of their site is killing the user experience, and that the big sites can learn from an amateur in Australia.
The report provides a feature-by-feature best-practices guide to use as a design reference when developing the search experience on your site. When implementing a feature, you can easily reference how others have used it across a range of sites.
In this report, you get:
- An inventory of search engines from 10 massive content Web sites, including Microsoft, Apple, NASA, and the CDC
- Detailed best practices for the 40 most important features including query input, results layout, relevance, and results navigation
- 8 immediate actions you can take to get search under control
- Ideal wireframes that embody our best-practice recommendations
Author Jeffrey Veen is known for his expertise in search. He launched HotWired.com in 1994 and served as executive interface director for Wired digital. He is the author of The Art & Science of Web Design and HotWired Style. His work has appeared in Wired, Wired News, New Architect, Digital Web, A List Apart, Web Egg, and Stating the Obvious.
Author Darcy DiNucci is an information architect and content strategist. She has developed Web site strategies since 1994 for clients such as Bank of America, Netscape Communications, PeopleSoft, and McKesson Corporation, and with agencies such as Adaptive Path, Hot Studio, MetaDesign, and Small Pond Studio. She is the author of Elements of Web Design, Adobe Master Class: Web Site Redesigns, and Flash Interface Design, and was a columnist on Web design for MacWEEK and Print magazines.
We’re offering a special discount on this $149 report for our newsletter subscribers. Just use coupon code BVNEWS for 20% off your entire order when you buy a copy of Site Content Search: User Experience Analysis. Learn more or order your own copy »
8 Quick Ways to Fix Your Search Engine
by Jeffrey Veen
Over the past year, I’ve evaluated the search experiences on a number of popular content sites. With the help of author and interface designer Darcy DiNucci, I picked apart the search and result designs from sites like Apple.com, NASA.gov, SchwabFoundation.org, and a variety of others. We focused on content sites, rather than e-commerce or Web applications, and we avoided general Web search engines entirely.
Our finding, not surprisingly, is that almost every site’s search engine could use improvement. We also found that most organizations’ Web teams couldn’t really affect the quality of their search results — they were stuck tweaking search technologies that had already been purchased and installed. Often, the most dramatic change they could make was in the design of the search and results interfaces. In some cases, as the old saying goes, this was like putting lipstick on a pig. But cleaning things up does help users find answers to their queries.
Through our research, we discovered eight quick fixes that will improve your site’s search experience.
Read the rest of Jeff’s essay »
Just days until our User Experience Week in D.C. Join us!
We’re just a couple days away from our Washington, D.C. event, and there are still a few spaces left.
Our annual, week-long event continues to grow. Adaptive Path’s partners and lots of guest speakers pull out all the stops and head to our nation’s capital for this User Experience Extravaganza — a full week of valuable training, fantastic after-hours events, and special guest speakers Douglas Bowman, Christina Wodtke, and Jason Fried.
Although we’ve moved to a larger location, seating is still limited. And, as always, friends of Adaptive Path get a 15% discount on all registrations. Use the discount code FOAP when registering.
Let Us Buy You a Couple of Beers in Washington, D.C.
With so many good friends in the Capital area, we thought we’d spend a couple of nights there, and buy a few rounds. Come have a beer with us, talk shop, and get to know all the Adaptive Path crew — along with our friends and the User Experience Week attendees.
Here’s where we’ll be on Monday 8/16:
August 16, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Designers Cocktails/Welcome to D.C. Cocktails
iapps, 2639 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 210
And then on Wednesday 8/18:
August 18, 5:30 p.m. until later that evening Cocktails with DCIA
Fado, 808 7th Street NW
Please join us — and feel free to bring friends. We look forward to seeing you in Washington!
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