Design That Works.

More Like This: A Design Pattern

The idea behind the More Like This pattern is very simple: within each group of items representing a particular category from a catalog or accompanying each item in search results, provide a prominent link or button with a label that is some variation of More Like This ». Unfortunately, most sites do not make sufficient use of this pattern and some that do use it design and implement it incorrectly.

Cameras, Music, and Mattresses: Designing Query Disambiguation Solutions for the Real World

Our language is limited and imperfect. When a customer constructs a query that may have more than one meaning, a good search user interface provides tools to help the customer define the query in less ambiguous terms, so the search results more closely match the person’s intention. This process is known as disambiguation.

Make More Money: Best Practices for Ads in Search Results: Part 2

In Part 2 of Ads Best Practices, we’ll discuss: understanding what makes a good ad, limiting cannibalization, providing ads for internal merchandise instead of third-party advertising, and ads on pages that appear if there are no search results.

Make More Money: Best Practices for Ads in Search Results: Part 1

Conflicting demands make many UX professionals think of ads as a necessary evil. Customers frequently go out of their way to say they hate ads, while marketers always seem to try their hardest to stuff as many of them as they can on each search results page on your site. In this column, I’ve teamed up with advertisement and eyetracking research guru Frank Guo to present real-world strategies for successfully integrating ads into your search results.

Best Practices for Designing Faceted Search Filters

Office Depot multiple-select attribute-based faceted search redesign misses some key points, making their new search user interface less usable and, therefore, less effective. This makes it an excellent case study for demonstrating best practices for designing filters for faceted search results.

Brave New World of Visual Browsing

Today, everywhere we look, it seems like image content is taking over the Web. The ubiquitous use of digital cameras and improvements in the picture quality of mobile phone cameras has likely helped this phenomenon along. The shift toward content that is primarily visual introduces new challenges and opportunities for developing intuitive and powerful user interfaces for browsing, searching, and filtering visual content.

The Mystery of Filtering by Sorting

For most users of consumer-facing ecommerce applications, the difference between a sort and a filter presents a mystery they understand dimly, if at all. The distinction between sorting and filtering blurs, because of a phenomenon I’ve called filtering by sorting, which leads to all sorts of interesting search user interface implications.

Search Results Satori: Balancing Pogosticking and Page Relevance

When designing the data and layout for search results pages, the challenge is finding the right balance between providing enough information in individual search results, so customers can make informed decisions without pogosticking, and providing enough relevant search results on each page of results to warrant further exploration of the site.

Making $10,000 a Pixel: Optimizing Thumbnail Images in Search Results

In search results, the old adage a picture is worth a thousand words rings true. When it comes to making your search results more efficient to use, more relevant, and more attractive, while dramatically increasing your conversion rates and revenues, images reign supreme. This column discusses how to avoid common pitfalls, and get the most out of your thumbnails.

Searching Help: Don’t Even Go There

Web site user assistance that consistently exceeds customer’s expectations can catapult your company to legendary status and create brand equity you can measure in billions of dollars. However, making Help a strategic asset for your company is an arduous task. To shed light on this important topic, I have teamed up with Tricia Clement, a renowned SUA expert, to deliver actionable insights about Web site user assistance.