January 22, 2001 New Thinking:
Quality search fundamentals: part 2

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• The search box should be larger than that for basic search (approximately 30 characters) as people will want to do more elaborate search requests
• A “Help” link should be provided on how to use the advanced search functionality. This link should be close to the Search button
• In addition to providing the reader with the possibility of entering Boolean AND / OR options in the advanced search query, the reader should be given radio button options which allow matches on “Any word”, “All words”, and “Precise Phrase”. This is due to the fact that many readers often don’t understand how to use AND / OR syntax correctly
• Advanced search should allow people to fully exploit the metadata collected on the content. For example, if date, country, product type, author, metadata was collected, then people should be able to refine their search based on this metadata

Displaying search results

• The search results page should avoid showing anything that does not directly relate to the search in question, as this can confuse and distract people while they are carrying out what is a very specific activity.
• The search results page should use a single column layout
• The number of documents found should be displayed between the top search box and the actual results.
• Search results should show results in the order of relevance.
• The basic search box should be displayed at the top of the search results and at the bottom.
• The search keyword(s) used in the search process should be displayed in the search box.
• In the case of an advanced search, present the basic search box at the top of the search results and at the bottom (as the advanced search environment tends to have a lot of features and thus takes up a lot of space on the screen). If possible, this basic search box should contain the advanced search choices that were made. For example, if you searched for “Ireland”, excluding the phrase “Kathy Ireland”, then the basic search box should contain “ireland -"kathy ireland"” in the results page.
• Search results should not show duplicate entries of content. This includes multiple URLs pointing to the same piece of content.
• Each search result should be laid out as follows:
  • The searched for word or phrase should be highlighted (bolded) in the result.
  • Show the title of the document, hyperlinked and in 10 point font.
  • All other text should be in 10 point font.
  • Show a two-line summary of the document.
  • The URL for the document should be displayed unlinked, on a separate line.
  • The classification under which the document can be found should appear last, hyperlinked. It should be preceded by the word “Classification”. It should link through to the final classification presented.
  • The search results should be broken down into batches of ten.
  • At the end of each batch of results, should be a set of links to the other batches up to the tenth batch. (For example: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10) The first batch should not be hyperlinked. It can be in a different color to show the reader that this is where they currently are.
  • When the reader clicks on the 10th batch, at the bottom of the page they should be presented with a 1-20 set of batches (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20). When they click on the 20th batch they should be shown 10-30, and so on in rolling batches of 20.
  • “Next” and “Previous” links should be provided. “Next” links you to the next page, “Previous” to the previous page.
• The document selected by the reader from the search results should show the reader’s query text selected within the document, allowing the reader to determine the relevance of that document to their query.

Gerry McGovern


 

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