pcplantdb

[Chad Knepp <pyg@galatea.org>]

Bear Kaufmann writes:
 > <snip>
 >
 > > This is the problem with controlled vocabularies and one of the
 > > inefficiencies in loose tagging... not everyone uses the same term
 > > when refering to a given thing.  Think of these as tags authored by
 > > Ken Fern.  What we need is the ability to fill in what seems missing
 > > in this tag set (fodder and timber in this case).
 > >
 > > Implementation wise I'm planning on further abstracting the
 > > search/search results object in order to manipulate it more easily on
 > > both the front and back ends.  In terms of a user experience I think
 > > it would work something like the user searches for uses="wood".  The
 > > result of this search is save-able (think stored queries in the issue
 > > tracker and elsewhere).  The user can then create a tag titled
 > > "timber" and attach it to each result in the query.  Actually the
 > > order of operations isn't important... there could be a tag wizard
 > > that guided through this.
 > 
 > I wonder if there isn't a way to do something a little more globally 
 > helpful.
 > A synonyms table for the tags or some such. When searching fodder the 
 > results pages tells the user (Don't like the results, try straw or 
 > .....).
 > Tracking queries like Rich has done could help us improve our results, 
 > hmm, time to write a privacy statement?
 > There's probably an even more elegant solution.
 > 
 > Also, ran into a usability guide, this one on search specifically:
 > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010513.html

In general, I like most of what Jakob Nielsen says.  Some interesting
points for those not reading it:

Advanced Search: Not

In our recent search study, the mean query length was 2.0 words. Other
studies also show a preponderance of simple searches. Most users
cannot use advanced search or Boolean query syntax. (<- search grammer
--Chad)

This has two implications for search design:

  * Emphasize your search engine's ability to handle single-word
    queries and very short multi-word queries and still produce
    high-quality results.
  * Do not offer advanced search from the home page. Advanced search
    leads users into trouble, as they invariably use it wrong. When it
    makes sense, offer advanced search as an option users can link to
    from the search results page: "Didn't find what you were looking
    for? Try advanced search."

<snip>

First Results Page is Golden

Users almost never look beyond the second page of search results. It
is thus essential that your search prioritize results in a useful way
and that all the most important hits appear on the first page.

Also, look through the most common queries in your search engine logs
and determine the optimal landing page for each common query. You can
then manually tweak the search engine to show these pages as the #1
hit.

(Why not to use alphabetical order --Chad)

Cheers,
Chad

-- 
Chad Knepp
python -c 'import base64;print base64.decodestring("cHlnQGdhbGF0ZWEub3Jn")'