Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success

Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success

by Greg Nudelman
Released May 2011
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9780470942239

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Book description

Best practices, practical advice, and design ideas for successful ecommerce search

A glaring gap has existed in the market for a resource that offers a comprehensive, actionable design patterns and design strategies for ecommerce search—but no longer. With this invaluable book, user experience designer and user researcher Greg Nudelman shares his years of experience working on popular ecommerce sites as he tackles even the most difficult ecommerce search design problems. Nudelman helps you create highly effective and intuitive ecommerce search design solutions and he takes a unique forward-thinking look at trends such as integrating searching with browsing to create a single-finding user interface.

  • Offers much-needed insight on how to create ecommerce search experiences that truly benefit online shoppers

  • Juxtaposes examples of common design pitfalls against examples of highly effective ecommerce search design solutions

  • Presents comprehensive guidance on ecommerce search design strategies for the Web, mobile phone applications, and new tablet devices

  • Shares the author's years of unique experience working with ecommerce from the perspective of the user's experience

Designing ecommerce Search is mandatory reading if you are interested in orchestrating successful ecommerce search strategies.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. About the Author
  6. About the Technical Editor
  7. About the Contributors
  8. Credits
  9. Acknowledgments
  10. Contents
  11. Foreword
  12. Introduction
    1. How This Book Is Structured
    2. Conventions
    3. Exploring Beyond This Book
    4. How to Contact the Author
  13. Part I: OPTIMIZING ECOMMERCE SEARCH RESULTS PAGES
    1. CHAPTER 1: STARTING FROM ZERO: Winning Strategies for No Search Results Pages
      1. THE NO SEARCH RESULTS PAGE: YOUR KEY TO COMPETITIVE SEARCH ADVANTAGE
      2. CREATE A ROBUST PARTIAL MATCH STRATEGY
      3. EMPLOY MULTIPLE CONTENT STRATEGIES
      4. CASE STUDY: HOTMAIL NO SEARCH RESULTS PAGE
      5. HOW CAN YOUR SITE-SEARCH ANALYTICS HELP YOU?
      6. REFERENCES
    2. CHAPTER 2: HOW SHOPPERS SEARCH
      1. HOW PEOPLE SEARCH
      2. HOW SHOPPERS SEARCH
      3. SEARCH AS A MULTICHANNEL EXPERIENCE
      4. REFERENCES
      5. PERSPECTIVE REFERENCES
    3. CHAPTER 3: CHOOSING THE RIGHT SEARCH RESULTS PAGE LAYOUT
      1. USING LIQUID LAYOUTS
      2. USING FIXED-WIDTH LAYOUTS
      3. OPTIMIZING FOR YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS
      4. HANDLING MARGINS IN FIXED-WIDTH LAYOUTS
      5. REFERENCES
    4. CHAPTER 4: BALANCING POGOSTICKING AND PAGE RELEVANCE
      1. POGOSTICKING IS NO FUN
      2. OVERLY RICH SEARCH RESULTS CAN BE UNHEALTHY FOR YOUR SITE
      3. OPTIMIZE RESULTS FOR YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR CUSTOMERS
      4. THE “FEEL” OF SEARCHING
      5. REFERENCES
    5. CHAPTER 5: MAKING $10,000 A PIXEL: optimizing Thumbnail Images in Search Results
      1. A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
      2. MAKE THUMBNAIL IMAGES LARGE AND INFORMATIVE
      3. INCLUDE SUPPORTING TEXT
      4. GO EASY ON THE BORDERS
      5. KEEP THE FOCUS ON THE IMAGE CONTENT
      6. HELP CUSTOMERS TO JUDGE AN ITEM'S ACTUAL SIZE
      7. BE CREATIVE IN CHOOSING INFORMATIVE Images
      8. REFERENCES
    6. CHAPTER 6: BEST PRACTICES FOR ADS IN SEARCH RESULTS
      1. DON'T KILL YOUR GOLDEN GOOSE
      2. INTEGRATE AD DISPLAYS WITH THE REST OF YOUR SITE
      3. MAKE SURE CUSTOMERS CAN EASILY DISTINGUISH ADS FROM CONTENT
      4. KEEP ADS RELEVANT AND APPROPRIATE
      5. UNDERSTAND HOW YOUR CUSTOMERS INTERACT WITH ADS
      6. UNDERSTAND WHAT MAKES A GOOD AD
      7. LIMIT CANNIBALIZATION
      8. PROVIDE ADS FOR INTERNAL MERCHANDISE INSTEAD OF THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING
      9. PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO ADS IF THERE ARE NO SEARCH RESULTS
      10. IN CONCLUSION
      11. EYETRACKING TIPS AND TRICKS
  14. PART II: DESIGNING ECOMMERCE SEARCH INTERACTIONS
    1. CHAPTER 7: BEST PRACTICES FOR DESIGNING FACETED SEARCH FILTERS
      1. CHOOSE DRILL-DOWN OR PARALLEL SELECTION
      2. PROVIDE UNDO FOR FILTER SELECTIONS
      3. MAKE ALL FILTERS EASILY AVAILABLE
      4. PROVIDE ONLY FILTER OPTIONS THAT REFLECT THE AVAILABLE INVENTORY
      5. PROVIDE FILTER OPTIONS THAT ENCOMPASS THE COMPLETE INVENTORY
      6. TEST YOUR FACETED SEARCH INTERFACE
      7. THE DESIGN OF FACETED SEARCH UI CONTROLS
    2. CHAPTER 8: NUMERIC FILTERS: Issues and Best Practices
      1. REPRESENTING DISCRETE VALUES FOR ASPECTS AS SETS OF RANGES
      2. NUMERIC SLIDERS
    3. CHAPTER 9: DATE FILTERS: Successful Calendar Design Patterns
      1. PROVIDE GOOD DEFAULTS
      2. SHOW ONLY VALID DATE VALUES
      3. MINIMIZE CLICKS
      4. RETAIN CUSTOMER-ENTERED VALUES
      5. CONSIDER IF YOU NEED YOUR CUSTOMERS TO ENTER DATES
      6. REFERENCES
    4. CHAPTER 10: THE MYSTERY OF FILTERING BY SORTING
      1. FILTERING BY SORTING: IT WAS COLONEL MUSTARD IN THE STUDY
      2. THE MYSTERY OF FILTERING BY SORTING
      3. FIVE MYTHS OF SORTING
      4. CASE STUDY: REDESIGNING HOTMAIL SORTING
    5. CHAPTER 11: DESIGNING QUERY DISAMBIGUATION SOLUTIONS FOR ONLINE SHOPPING
      1. WHICH CANON?
      2. SHOW RELATED SEARCHES
      3. DEFAULT TO CATEGORY
      4. PRESENT A PROMINENT CATEGORY SELECTOR
      5. CASE STUDY: HOME DEPOT QUERY DISAMBIGUATION REDESIGN USING THE EXPANDING CATEGORY WIDGET DESIGN PATTERN
      6. CLARIFY, THEN REFINE
      7. REFERENCES
    6. CHAPTER 12: INTRODUCING THE MORE LIKE THIS DESIGN PATTERN
      1. SHOW ME MORE
      2. MAKE GROUP ORGANIZATION SIMPLE AND OBVIOUS
      3. FOCUS ON HELPING CUSTOMERS MAKE DECISIONS
      4. FORMAT GROUPS DIFFERENTLY FROM SEARCH RESULTS
      5. CASE STUDY: TRIPADVISOR REDESIGN USING THE TWO-DIMENSIONAL MORE LIKE THIS PATTERN
    7. CHAPTER 13: DESIGNING EFFECTIVE BREADCRUMBS
      1. HISTORICAL BREADCRUMBS
      2. HIERARCHICAL BREADCRUMBS
      3. EMERGENT BREADCRUMB DESIGNS THAT INTEGRATE SEARCH AND BROWSE
      4. Overstock.com's Set-Remove-Set Breadcrumb
      5. Edmunds' Breadcrumb with Mega-Menus
      6. Guardian.co.uk's Bidirectional Breadcrumb
      7. Microsoft Services' Bidirectional Breadcrumb with Mega-Menus
      8. Yahoo! TV's Tabbed Breadcrumb
      9. CASE STUDY: INTEGRATED FACETED BREADCRUMBS ON WALMART
      10. USABILITY, SEO, AND FACETED NAVIGATION
      11. SEO and Usability
      12. Faceted Navigation
      13. So Where Does This Leave You?
      14. ON THE FUTURE OF BREADCRUMBS
      15. REFERENCES
  15. PART III: THE FUTURE OF ECOMMERCE SEARCH
    1. CHAPTER 14: THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF VISUAL BROWSING
      1. INTRODUCING VISUAL BROWSING
      2. BROWSING IMAGES USING TEXT ATTRIBUTES OR TAGS
      3. USING IMAGES IN QUERIES
      4. USING IMAGES FOR NAVIGATING IN THE REAL WORLD
      5. READING BARCODE IMAGES ON MOBILE DEVICES
      6. AUGMENTED REALITY AND MOBILE NEAR-FIELD COMPUTING
      7. SOCIAL SEARCH CAN'T BE SOLVED BY AN ALGORITHM
      8. “Social Search” Engines
      9. References
      10. PERSONALIZED SEARCH AND RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS
      11. Searching for Products on Amazon
      12. In Conclusion
      13. References
      14. REFERENCES
    2. CHAPTER 15: DESIGNING MOBILE SEARCH: Turning Limitations into Opportunities
      1. UNDERSTANDING MOBILE PLATFORMS
      2. OPTIMIZING USER EXPERIENCE FOR MOBILE CONTEXT OF USE
      3. CHANGING SEARCH PARADIGMS
      4. REFERENCES
    3. CHAPTER 16: DESIGN PATTERNS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE MOBILE FACETED SEARCH
      1. MOBILE FACETED SEARCH CHALLENGES
      2. FOUR CORNERS AND MODAL OVERLAY PATTERNS
      3. STATUS BAR DROP-DOWN MENU PATTERN
      4. WATERMARK PATTERN WITH THE FULL-PAGE REFINEMENT OPTIONS PATTERN
      5. TEASER MOBILE DESIGN PATTERN
      6. BASIC/ADVANCED PARALLEL ARCHITECTURE PATTERN
      7. REFERENCES
    4. CHAPTER 17: SEARCH ON TABLET DEVICES: THE FLIGHT OF DISCOVERY
      1. TABLET BEHAVIORS AND ERGONOMICS
      2. A FINE LINE: THE IPAD AS A PORTABLE DEVICE
      3. BUTTONS ARE A HACK
      4. TABLET ECOMMERCE SEARCH
      5. WHAT'S NEXT?
      6. REFERENCES
      7. CONCLUSION
    5. CHAPTER 18: SEARCH FOR ECOMMERCE HELP SYSTEMS
      1. ASPIRIN VERSUS VITAMINS
      2. STICK TO ESTABLISHED BEST PRACTICES
      3. CREATING A COMPREHENSIVE USER ASSISTANCE STRATEGY
      4. BEST PRACTICES
      5. REFERENCES
  16. APPENDIX: DESIGNING SEARCH: Best Practices
    1. CHAPTER 1: BEST PRACTICES
    2. CHAPTER 2: BEST PRACTICES
    3. CHAPTER 3: BEST PRACTICES
    4. CHAPTER 4: BEST PRACTICES
    5. CHAPTER 5: BEST PRACTICES
    6. CHAPTER 6: BEST PRACTICES
    7. CHAPTER 7: BEST PRACTICES
    8. CHAPTER 8: BEST PRACTICES
    9. CHAPTER 9: BEST PRACTICES
    10. CHAPTER 10: BEST PRACTICES
    11. CHAPTER 11: BEST PRACTICES
    12. CHAPTER 12: BEST PRACTICES
    13. CHAPTER 13: BEST PRACTICES
    14. CHAPTER 14: BEST PRACTICES
    15. CHAPTER 15: BEST PRACTICES
    16. CHAPTER 16: BEST PRACTICES
    17. CHAPTER 17: BEST PRACTICES
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success
  • Author(s): Greg Nudelman
  • Release date: May 2011
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9780470942239