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"I'm Feeling Lucky" - Building Great Search Experiences for Today's Users (#IAC19)

Dan Newman
March 17, 2019

"I'm Feeling Lucky" - Building Great Search Experiences for Today's Users (#IAC19)

(As presented at the 2019 Information Architecture Conference in Orlando, FL. A written version of this talk is available at http://bit.ly/npr-search)

Google has become synonymous with search, and voice platforms like Alexa are changing expectations from lists of potential results to a single "right" answer. In the face of well-performing, well-funded competitors like these, it might be tempting to throw in the towel entirely and assume that building your own site search or app search are no longer needed. However, in truth, search has never been more important to driving great user experiences than it is today.

To start, we'll look through some examples of content and navigational search done well and talk about why they work—for instance, Netflix responding to searches for films they don't currently have available for streaming with automated suggestions of similar films. We'll also look at some missed opportunities—for example, Washington Post not returning any relevant results for a search on "subscription" or "home delivery", or Wolfram|Alpha returning images of a moose when the user searches for pictures of a deer (because, obviously, a moose is part of the deer family!). We'll next discuss the changing audience expectations that users bring with them when they open search on your website or app—and what you can do to meet and exceed those expectations. Finally, we'll take a look into the crystal ball to see what today's technology developments (Voice! AR/VR! Machine Learning!) might hold for the future of homegrown search applications.

Dan Newman

March 17, 2019
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  1. “I’m Feeling Lucky”
 Building Great Search Experiences for Today’s Users

    Dan Newman Director of Product Design, NPR @creativenewman Allison Shelley/NPR
  2. @creativenewman #IAC19 “Search lets users control their own destiny and

    assert independence from websites' attempt to direct how they use the web. Search is also users' escape hatch when they are stuck in navigation.” 
 -Jakob Nielsen, May 2001 bit.ly/nngsearch Nielsen Norman Group
  3. @creativenewman #IAC19 • Search helps when you have too much

    information to browse • Search helps fragmented sites • Search is a learning tool • Search should be there because
 users expect it to be there • Search can tame dynamism
  4. @creativenewman #IAC19 “As the choice of first resort for many

    users and tasks, search is a defining element of the user experience… Unfortunately, it’s also the source of endless frustration. Search is the worst usability problem on the Web.”
  5. @creativenewman #IAC19 “A Taxonomist, a Software Engineer, and a UX

    Researcher Walk
 Into a Bar: Bridging AI and User Experience Methods at Etsy“ Gio Kincade, Jenny Benevento, & Jill Fruchter, IA Summit 2017 bit.ly/etsyias17
  6. @creativenewman #IAC19 “A Taxonomist, a Software Engineer, and a UX

    Researcher Walk
 Into a Bar: Bridging AI and User Experience Methods at Etsy“ Gio Kincade, Jenny Benevento, & Jill Fruchter, IA Summit 2017 bit.ly/etsyias17
  7. @creativenewman #IAC19 Serial Host Sarah Koenig Says She Set Out

    To Report, Not… fresh air Dec 23, 2014 45 min 21 sec Wait Show/Podcast Title Food General Topic/Series Obama Keywords (organic search) Ari People Podcast ‘Podcast’ Egypt’s Citizens Still Wait ‘To Breathe Deep The Air Of… weekend edition saturday Saturday 2 min 47 sec Waiting For A Break: Obama On ‘Strategic Patience’ In… morning edition From Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Best of 2014 Part Two Saturday 49 min 30 sec Best of 2014 Part One Dec 27, 2014 49 min 30 sec Jenny Slate Dec 20, 2014 49 min 44 sec More about this show Beyond Free Lunch: Schools Open Food Pantries For Hungry all things considered Stories About Food More from this topic Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Best of 2014 Part Two Saturday 49 min 30 sec Best of 2014 Part One Dec 27, 2014 49 min 30 sec Jenny Slate Dec 20, 2014 49 min 44 sec Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! is NPR's weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what's real news and what's made up. recent episodes: Sir Patrick Stewart Dec 13, 2014 49 min 46 sec Dan Barber: Can Organic Farming Make Perfect Fish? ted radio hour Today, 8:51 AM 9 min 44 sec On His 80th Birthday, Shake It Like Elvis With A Milkshake the salt Yesterday 2 min 41 sec How Anglers Are Learning To Save Fish That Get ‘The Bends’ the salt Tuesday 4 min 28 sec Stories about Food Dan Barber: Can Organic Farming Make Perfect Fish? ted radio hour Today, 8:51 AM 9 min 44 sec On His 80th Birthday, Shake It Like Elvis With A Milkshake the salt Yesterday 2 min 41 sec How Anglers Are Learning To Save Fish That Get ‘The Bends’ the salt Tuesday 4 min 28 sec A Cure For The Common Hangover, Found On The Stove found recipes Dec 21, 2014 2 min 31 sec For normal organic results (like those above): • Use ‘best match’ results from GSA, but move ALL results from the past 24 hours to the top (as GSA doesn’t alway appropriately position new stories due to lack of page rank). • Exclude any duplicate results that appear in a featured pod (like show title pod or topic pods at left). • Use infinite scroll to continue loading more as the user scrolls. Obama In Tennessee To Promote Free Community College morning edition Today, 3:25 AM 3 min 20 sec A ‘Sizable Decrease’ In Those Passing the GED morning edition Today, 3:26 AM 3 min 48 sec Obama, GOP To Face Off Over Keystone XL Pipeline morning edition Yesterday 5 min 1 sec Compressional Republicans Take Another Swing At Obamacare morning edition Yesterday 3 min 46 sec A London Tube Dream Ride, In The Driver’s Cab weekend edition sunday Stories By Ari Shapiro More by Ari The Theater Company Is 1927; The Technology Is Cutting Edge parallels Jan 5, 2015 3 min 31 sec High-Tech Tools Help Irish Dairy Farmers Produce More Milk business Jan 2, 2015 3 min 46 sec London’s Morning Gloryville Starts Sunrise Rave Trend europe Jan 1, 2014 3 min 49 sec News Magazine Searches Morning Edition Ari Shapiro Ari Shapiro is an NPR international correspondent based in London. An award-winning journalist, his reporting covers a wide range of topics and can be heard on all of NPR's national news programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered. More… recent stories: The Theater Company Is 1927; The Technology Is Cutting Edge parallels Jan 5, 2015 3 min 31 sec High-Tech Tools Help Irish Dairy Farmers Produce More Milk business Jan 2, 2015 3 min 46 sec London’s Morning Gloryville Starts Sunrise Rave Trend europe Jan 1, 2014 3 min 49 sec Morning Edition Boko Haram Uses Girls As Suicide Bombers, Reports Say Today, 4:59 AM 2 min 52 sec Every weekday for over three decades, Morning Edition has taken listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries that inform, challenge and occasionally amuse. Morning Edition is the most listened-to news radio program in the country. today’s stories: Terror Attacks Stun France, Millions Turn Out For Sunday Today, 4:59 AM 3 min 8 sec In Haiti, Politics And An Earthquake Anniversary Collide Today, 4:59 AM 4 min 5 sec From Morning Edition More about this show Boko Haram Uses Girls As Suicide Bombers, Reports Say Today, 4:59 AM 2 min 52 sec Terror Attacks Stun France, Millions Turn Out For Sunday Today, 4:59 AM 3 min 8 sec In Haiti, Politics And An Earthquake Anniversary Collide Today, 4:59 AM 4 min 5 sec So you know… We always include stories from Morning Edition as part of your NPR One flow. Just hit play to get the day’s news, tailored for you. Current Behavior So you know… We always include podcasts that we think you’ll like as part of your NPR One flow. You can also search for podcasts by title, or browse recommended episodes in ‘Suggestions’ Blurbs (for people, podcasts, and shows) will need to be truncated for display in the app, with the ability to reveal all (just like the updated bio pages on NPR.org). To discuss: what actions should be available at a show level? How to reveal actions at a story level in list views? Bored … And Brilliant? A Challenge To Disconnect all tech considered Yesterday 5 min 47 sec Podcasts Rise In Popularity, Funded By Advertisers digital life Nov 30, 2014 4 min 10 sec Consider disabling button user has already hear the most recent newscast, and replace text wit ‘You’ve already heard the most recent newscast Organic results should always follow custom pods, even in cases where we suspect that most users aren’t looking for the organic results. Therefore, we don’t break the experience for those who truly want news about a given topic. Message should be tappable directly to Suggestions view
  8. @creativenewman #IAC19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

    Modern search… … is implicit in the experience. … attempts to provide answers, not choices. … is contextually-aware. … handles divergent
 use cases. … guides users to
 success. … is built on high-
 quality metadata. … adapts to all
 form factors. … involves
 human curation.
  9. @creativenewman #IAC19 Traditional search is “user inputs text”. 
 Voice

    search is “user says something that turns into text (hopefully correctly)”. 
 AR/VR search might be “user looks at something; we implicitly turn that action into an intent that we turn into text”.