The Faceted Interface: Optimizing the Usability of Enterprise Search Glenn Barnett, Principal Consultant, Molecular

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 2

3 Result Page: Next

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 4 Text Search Natural Language Processing Relevance Ranking Fuzzy Matching Filtering Faceted Navigation Type-Ahead / Auto-Suggest SlidersHistograms

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 5 What is Faceted Navigation? Content Type HTML XML PDF Content Category Human Resources Information Systems Management Publication Date Past Week Past Month Past Year Facet Facet Values Facet Facet Values Facet Facet Values

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8 PC Connection

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 9 Measuring facet usage Usability test of existing site Surprisingly low facet usage across tasks Example task: Find laptop under $1400, 2+ GHz, 30+ GB drive, DVD player, as light as possible 5 out of 8 total participants used facets, some with hesitation 1 out of 4 infrequent visitors used facets Log file analysis metrics Percentage of visitors who used facets Percentage of visitors who reached product page Conversion rate User interviews Some customers expressed difficulty finding products

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 10 What wasn’t working? Discoverability People weren’t noticing the facets Usability People couldn’t use the facets easily

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 11 Discoverability: Placement & Prominence Strong user behavior patterns on results pages Eyes tend to jump to where they expect results to begin Vertical page scanning

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 12 Discoverability: Placement & Prominence

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 13 Discoverability: Placement & Prominence Users may not expect facets, so we need to intercept their eyes Position facets as close as possible to top of results Stack above results when possible Make prominent by using: Size Color Shape White space Interface elements (link underlining, form elements)

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 14 Discoverability: Connection to results Clear visual connection between facets and results list

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 15 Usability Goal: Ensure people can easily use the facets Selecting values Verifying selections Modifying selections

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 16 Usability: Selecting values Familiar interface elements reduce learning curve for new interactions Simple text links Drop-down menus Numbers help users see effects of their choices in advance

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 17 Usability: Selecting values Support selection of multiple values where appropriate E.g., brand, features

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 18 Usability: Verifying selections Breadcrumbs: the common approach May not be prominent enough to give clear user feedback Often too separated from what I just clicked on Inconsistent with expectations for breadcrumb behavior

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 19 Usability: Verifying selections Place contextually near facet controls Yahoo!

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 20 Usability: Verifying selections Use more familiar interface elements Simple list Checkboxes Drop-down menus

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 21 Usability: Verifying selections Treat search term like another selected facet

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 22 Usability: Modifying selections Make sure users can modify their selections Breadcrumbs are at a disadvantage here Beware the “X” Beware making users work too hard

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 23 The new PC Connection Discoverability Placement on left Prominence with color, drop-down menus, and movement Connection to results with color and shape Usability Selecting values with familiar drop-downs Numbers, more link Verifying selections via familiar checkboxes, placed contextually Search terms and Clearance too Modifying values by unchecking

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 24 The new PC Connection Usability test of new site Facet usage greatly improved Same task: Find laptop under $1400, 2+ GHz, 30+ GB drive, DVD player, as light as possible 10 out of 10 participants used facets without hesitation Log file analysis Improved use of facets Improved conversion rate Customer service feedback positive

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 25 Facet Configuration Best Practices Facet selection: Which should appear? Facet sequence: In what order? Facet values: What options for each?

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 26 Facet selection What facets should appear? Know your data Look at your logs Click paths and feature usage Search terms Talk with your users Interviews Survey Minimize information overload

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 27 Facet sequence What order should they appear in? By usage Alphabetical By type (e.g., all the tech specs grouped together) Consistent across categories? Task or category appropriateness more important than sitewide consistency Example: “Platform” facet in Laptops vs. Cables

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 28 Facet values Common practice: Values as ranges Does not reflect more common usage “I want to spend less than $200” “I want at least a 12-inch screen” CNET Crutchfield

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 29 Facet values

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 30 Facet values Values should be minimums or maximums where appropriate

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 31 Facet Configuration Best Practices - Summary The faceted interface is only as good as what lies behind it Good metadata Useful Accurate Clear User-centered taxonomy and labeling Good search Relevancy Thesaurus (synonyms, acronyms, abbreviations, stemming, spelling variants, stop words)

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | 32 Thank you Glenn Barnett Principal Consultant, Molecular