Newsletter #67 Stop Them From Searching!

Created on 08/05/02

A special hello to all new subscribers.

The last newsletter (3rd April, 2002) was "Technology & Human Evolution" and can be found at http://www.netinsites.com/article3.cfm?ArticleID=93

This newsletter only goes to those who wish to receive it. Click on the link at the end of this article if you wish to remove yourself from the list.

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Because the Internet is so new there are so many things unknown in the areas of Website design and usability - actually I find that rather fascinating!

The trouble is that Website designers, experts and their clients often assume they know what users want based on some rather arbitrary assumptions. Take Search boxes for example. For several years it has been assumed that these little boxes should be on all pages, as once a site gets reasonably complex they act as a sort of safety net for users who get lost. A user can type in a few keywords and find what they are looking for.

Well this assumption is seriously flawed.

Jared Spool and User Interface Engineering (UIE) www.uie.com are well-regarded usability testers. They have found that 77% of users are more likely to find what they want when they use other options like category links. It's just that so many things can go wrong when you try to search content on a Website. Potential pitfalls include:

• Users misspell keywords or get the phrases or terminology wrong.
  
  
• The site search engines can often use HTML title tags or other data that give obscure results.
  
  
• If the results come through as multi-pages, users are unlikely to click through to view the other pages, even though their desired content may be there.
  
  
• Often the results come slowly, making it unlikely that users will try again if they don't find the information they want first time.

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USABILITY STUDIES - We offer cost-effective audits for Website owners looking to upgrade usability and therefore improve the returns from their Website. The only way of measuring of whether a Website meets your target audience's needs is to ask some of them! For more information www.netinsites.com/services/usability.cfm or email les@netinsites.com.

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In another study Jakob Nielsen (www.useit.com) found that users are also quite poor at query reformulation, that is if they don't find what they want first time they are even more unlikely to find it if they try again. His reported search success rate was:

1. First query: 51%
2. Second query: 32%
3. Third query: 18%

Also what will happen is that if users perceive that they are receiving 'junk' results based on the evidence of one or two searches they will quickly abandon the process and the Website.

What these studies show is that the onus is on the designer of the Website to built sites in such a fashion that users do not have to use a Search box to find content. Too much use of the Search function should be a cause for concern not celebration.

As usual we like to give you some practical ways that you can act on the information above.

• Building a Website in a scenario-based fashion is something we have written about before - see this previous article www.netinsites.com/article3.cfm?ArticleID=80. Ask the question: What will people be looking for? Rather than putting information up in a way that mirrors your organisation's structure.
  
  
• Part of finding the best way to structure and present this information is to conduct some simple usability testing to find out how you can build the site structure in a manner that suits your users. See this article www.netinsites.com/article3.cfm?ArticleID=43 for more information.
  
  
• Offer explicit and easily navigated categories that deliver the content users want.
  
  
• Prioritise the content on your front page by reducing the space allotted to featured products/services. Look at the way this site www.cancer.gov has used their front page to show what content is available. The big successful sites like eBay and Amazon also show lots of information on their front pages so that users can find what they want without searching.
  
  
• Keep iterating by studying which pages are the most popular and which are not. The popular pages should be made highly visible and easy to get to.
  
  
• If you do have a Search function, can you check out what search terms are being used? Does the method or algorithm behind it work successfully?

There are many situations where Websites are database-driven and require extensive search mechanisms. However on sites where the Search function is more a backup to help users find the right content, making sure people don't have to use that function should be a high-level strategy.

Alex Garden

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Newbies

There are several ways that people can check where you've been online, although you can hide your tracks to a certain extent. The Browser's Cache, History, Typed URLs, Favorites and Cookies contain information about your browsing history. This month in Part I, we'll cover two of these using Internet Explorer (IE) as the browser:
Cache: In order to speed your online viewing, IE stores copies of the pages you visit in a cache on your hard drive. When you revisit a page, it may display the version from your hard drive instead of reloading the page. In IE the cache is normally stored here c:\Windows\Temporary Internet Files. This can be cleared of course but if not the details of sites recently visited will be in this directory.
History: IE keeps a record of the URLS of Webpages you have recently visited. It can be cleared but if not go 'View', 'Explorer Bar' then 'History' or 'Ctrl+H'.

For previous tips visit http://www.netinsites.com/hottips.cfm

Power Users

You can create your own custom shortcuts to Internet sites using Notepad. Just run Notepad and enter the following as shown here:

[InternetShortcut]
URL=http://www.yoursite.com

Choose 'File', 'Save As' and then click the arrow at the right side of the 'Save as Type' list box and select 'All Files'. Name your file Yoursite.url and select a folder for it. Click Save to save the file. Note that you can name a file whatever you wish, but you must use the URL extension.

For previous Power Tips visit http://www.netinsites.com/hottips_power.cfm

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If you like playing around with model aeroplanes and want one that really 'flies' checkout this page: www.jethros.i12.com/FUN/PAGES/model_plane.htm. Warning: Scenes may disturb some viewers.

Annoyances.org describes itself as "the most complete collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows." If you're interested in finding out what's wrong with your computer or just want to know more about Windows this is a great resource. The site has forums and troubleshooting guides with some great practical information. See www.annoyances.org/

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No new articles this month.

To search through all the articles in our online database just use the search function on any page of our Website http://www.netinsites.com

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page http://www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

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To access previous newsletters visit our newsletter archive at http://www.netinsites.com/articles.cfm.

If you wish to subscribe to the email version, just send a blank email to subscribe@netinsites.com, or visit www.netinsites.com .

Best wishes

Alex Garden

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