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

The Faceted Interface: Optimizing the Usability of Enterprise Search

Glenn Barnett, Principal Consultant, Molecular

Copyright © 2007 Molecular, Inc. | www.molecular.com 2


Enter Text Search

Result Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next


Text SearchText Search

Natural Language ProcessingNatural Language Processing

Relevance RankingRelevance Ranking

Fuzzy MatchingFuzzy Matching

FilteringFiltering

Faceted NavigationFaceted Navigation

Type-Ahead / Auto-SuggestType-Ahead / Auto-Suggest

SlidersSliders

HistogramsHistograms


What is Faceted Navigation?

Content TypeHTMLXMLPDF

Content CategoryHuman ResourcesInformation SystemsManagement

Publication DatePast WeekPast MonthPast Year

Facet

Facet Values

Facet

Facet Values

Facet

Facet Values




PC Connection - 2003


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


What wasn’t working?

Discoverability

People weren’t noticing the facets

Usability

People couldn’t use the facets easily


Discoverability: Placement & Prominence

• Strong user behavior patterns on results pages• Eyes tend to jump to where they expect results to begin• Vertical page scanning





• 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)


Discoverability: Connection to results

Clear visual connection between facets and results list


Usability

Goal: Ensure people can easily use the facets• Selecting values• Verifying selections• Modifying selections


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


Usability: Selecting values

Support selection of multiple values where appropriate• E.g., brand, features


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



Place contextually near facet controls Yahoo!



Use more familiar interface elements• Simple list• Checkboxes• Drop-down menus

All prices

All manufacturers

Select your options:

All categories

All platforms

All manufacturers


All categories

All platforms

$100 or less $100 or less

All manufacturers


All categories

All platforms



Treat search term like another selected facet


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


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


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


Facet Configuration Best Practices

• Facet selection: Which should appear?• Facet sequence: In what order?• Facet values: What options for each?


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


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


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


Facet values


Facet values

• Values should be minimums or maximums where appropriate


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)


Thank you

Glenn Barnett

Principal Consultant, [email protected]

Documents

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