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Helping Users Find Their Own Way: Creating Modern Search Experiences Dan Newman Director of Product Design, NPR @creativenewman Allison Shelley/NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 From the archives: Talk of the Nation July 16, 1999 Allison Shelley/NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Think about the last time you
 searched for something online...

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 The specifics may change,
 but core user needs are
 remarkably consistent.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 “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

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 ● 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

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 “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.”

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 PART ONE: Eight Considerations for
 Modern Search Experiences

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 1 Modern search attempts to
 provide answers, not choices.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 GOOGLE NEWS YOUTUBE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 2 Modern search is
 implicit in the experience.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 3 Modern search is
 contextually-aware.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 4 Modern search handles
 divergent use cases.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 5 Modern search is built on
 high-quality metadata.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 (…metadata that is
 meaningful to your users.)

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 “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

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 “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

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 6 Modern search helps
 guides users to success.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 (“What can I ask?”)

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 7 Modern search adapts
 to all form factors.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 “Think with Google: In-App Search“ bit.ly/google-in-app ● Make heavier use of auto- complete / type-ahead ● Minimize complicated filtering, faceting, and sorting controls ● Carefully evaluate the presented metadata

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Andres Urena/Unsplash

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 8 Modern search usually
 requires human curation.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 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. … helps guide users
 to success. … is built on high-
 quality metadata. … adapts to all
 form factors. … usually requires
 human curation.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Modern search requires you to actually care about your users.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 PART TWO: Building a Modern Search Experience at NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 User expectations have changed. We need to change with them.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 And this is just the beginning.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 How do you know
 if it’s working?

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Does it pass the sniff test?

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Listen to your users.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 How’s it going now?

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 PART THREE: What Comes Next?

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@creativenewman #Confab2020

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Machine Learning:
 It’s not coming to save us Allison Shelley/NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Voice UI: Answers instead of choices Eric Lee/NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 No facets, no filters,
 limited refinements.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 What choices do we really
 need our user to make?

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 A high premium on precision,
 and low tolerance for weak results.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 AR/VR: Inputless querying Photo: NPR

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 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”.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 IN CONCLUSION: Some Key Takeaways

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Work to understand user intent. (That probably means
 talking to your users.)

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 You know your content
 better than Google does.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Refine your results.
 Test in context.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Search is a verb, not a noun.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Don’t forget that this still matters.

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 Nina Totenberg
 NPR “Founding Mother” and
 Legal Affairs Correspondent

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@creativenewman #Confab2020 An article based on this talk is
 available now at bit.ly/npr-search Dan Newman Director of Product Design @creativenewman [email protected]

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@creativenewman #Confab2020