Search Articles & Videos

  • Love at First Sight in Eyetracking

    When users search for information, they don't always keep looking for the best solution. In our eyetracking studies 20% of the time, users make do with the first result and don't look any further.

  • How to Design a Good Search UI

    If users don't use your search a lot, it's often because the search user interface is poorly designed. Here are the top guidelines for how to show the search feature on both desktop and mobile.

  • The Search Before the Search: Keyword Foraging

    When users don’t know what keywords they need, they must do extra work to determine what their desired item or concept is called.

  • The Love-at-First-Sight Gaze Pattern on Search-Results Pages

    Eyetracking studies show that users sometimes look at only a single result on a search-results page because that result is good enough for their needs.

  • How Search Engines Shape Gaze Patterns During Information Seeking: Google vs. Baidu

    Search-engine design alters users’ gaze patterns on search-engine results pages, but only when users find the information on the page relevant to their current task.

  • Three Key SERP Features: Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, and Knowledge Panels

    These elements of search-engine results pages can direct attention, help people reformulate their queries, and influence users’ information needs.

  • Good Abandonment on Search Results Pages

    Now that people can easily find answers to their questions directly on results pages, content creators must rethink their role in providing information to their users.

  • The Pinball Pattern of Scanning Search Results Pages

    Today, a SERP (search engine results page) contains so many design elements that users don't have a simple way of picking out their preferred link. Eyetracking studies show that users' eyes bounce around the page between items in a scan pattern that resembles a pinball machine game.

  • How Information-Seeking Behavior Has Changed in 22 Years

    We organize online information-seeking activities that lead to important decisions and actions according to 5 dimensions: purpose, method, content, social interaction, and device used to carry out the activity.

  • Search Box vs. Navigation

    Is it enough to have a search feature on a website? Or do users also benefit from a well-designed navigation interface? Depending on the nature of the site, the balance between the two can change.

  • Complex Search-Results Pages Change Search Behavior: The Pinball Pattern

    Because today’s search-results pages have many possible complex layouts, users don’t always process search results sequentially. They distribute their attention more variably across the page than in the past.

  • Designing Search Suggestions

    Useful search suggestions lead to relevant results and are visually distinct from the query text. (This is about how to design the search feature on your own website, whether it's an ecommerce site or not.)

  • Intranet Design After a Merger or Acquisition

    Building an intranet for a newly expanded organization calls for empathy, balance, and often some resistance toward upper management.

  • Defining Helpful Filter Categories and Values for Better UX

    For a useful faceted search, develop filter categories and filter values that are appropriate, predictable, free of jargon, and prioritized.

  • The State of Ecommerce Search

    Ecommerce search tools are easy to find, return more-relevant results than in the past, and rely on autosuggestions and facets to guide users through the search space.

  • Site Search Suggestions

    Useful search suggestions lead to relevant results and are visually distinct from the query text. If appropriate, they include scope, thumbnails, or categories.

  • Search-Log Analysis: The Most Overlooked Opportunity in Web UX Research

    Your website’s search engine can tell you what your web visitors want, how they look for it, and how well your content strategy meets their needs.

  • Top 10 Enduring Web-Design Mistakes

    A large-scale usability study revealed the most common and damaging web-design mistakes of today. They aren't surprising or new - they're enduring issues that continue to hurt website usability.

  • 7 Ways to Improve Your Website’s or Intranet’s Built-In Search Engine

    The accuracy of site search benefits when user queries are altered to allow for user errors or suboptimal word choice.

  • Mobile Faceted Search with a Tray: New and Improved Design Pattern

    Displaying faceted-search controls on mobile devices in a ‘tray’ overlay is a new effective solution to the challenge of showing both results and filters on small screens.

  • Love at First Sight in Eyetracking

    When users search for information, they don't always keep looking for the best solution. In our eyetracking studies 20% of the time, users make do with the first result and don't look any further.

  • How to Design a Good Search UI

    If users don't use your search a lot, it's often because the search user interface is poorly designed. Here are the top guidelines for how to show the search feature on both desktop and mobile.

  • The Pinball Pattern of Scanning Search Results Pages

    Today, a SERP (search engine results page) contains so many design elements that users don't have a simple way of picking out their preferred link. Eyetracking studies show that users' eyes bounce around the page between items in a scan pattern that resembles a pinball machine game.

  • Search Box vs. Navigation

    Is it enough to have a search feature on a website? Or do users also benefit from a well-designed navigation interface? Depending on the nature of the site, the balance between the two can change.

  • Designing Search Suggestions

    Useful search suggestions lead to relevant results and are visually distinct from the query text. (This is about how to design the search feature on your own website, whether it's an ecommerce site or not.)