UNDERSTANDING USERS’ SEARCH INTENTMags Hanley

Search Solutions 2013

27 November 2013

WHAT DO I MEAN ‘SEARCH INTENT’?

What do users want?

Problem or need

Enterprise, company or service

Content, services or products

Good search results

Example

The kids are off for half-term

Events in London

Things to do

Museums

Theatre

Kids’ activities

Kids’ workshop

at the Science Museum

EXERCISE IN INTENT AND FACETS

ResultsTerm Users’ intent Facet/ structure

free I’m cheap. Pricing

brunch Full English vs. eggs benedict Mealtimes

jazz My music tastes are sophisticated.It’s a logical place to find this information.

Music genres

Les Miserables Is the DVD out for Christmas?I want to see the theatre musical.

Name

Italian Pasta anyone? Cuisine

Shoreditch What’s local to me? Area

kids It’s half term, what can we do?

Audience

today I’m bored – what can I do? Date

clubbing Let’s dance! Subject

What does this exercise show us?• Know the content in context

• Les Miserables in London – theatre, movie, DVD, • Les Miserables in Paris – book, play, movie, DVD

• Know the time of the year• Today – immediacy of the search – ‘Give me something good’• Ice skating – in winter• Festivals – in summer

• Know the users’ mental model in context• Location – zone, village and postcode• Music terms per country, even though music is international

What’s urban music?It’s black - NY It’s a scene - London

SEARCH SYSTEMS

Peter Morville – In Defence of Search – December 7, 2001http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000004.php

Search system

USERS’ INTENT

Modes of information seeking

Marcia Bates – Modes of Information SeekingHttp://gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/info_SeekSearch-i-030329.html

Supporting intent in the search interface

OR

Other search input models

Facet use in different countriesParis facet use New York facet use

Facet use in different countriesLondon facet use

CONTENT STRUCTURED TO SUPPORT INTENT

Matching intent in the content

Does it match what users are looking for?

Some examples:

• Product numbers of panel boards and switches, searched by contractors and engineers. The company didn’t structure the content to allow this to happen.

• Sort codes and branch details for a retail bank

• Mealtimes in Time Out – more popular than cuisines. Is the content tagged or have keywords in the content?

Location in London

Levels of granularity• Postcode (TW9 2SU)• Street (Oxford St)• Town/village (Hammersmith, Camden)• Area (South-West London)• City-wide (London)

• How do we allow people to search them all? Do we even capture this information?

PRESENTING RESULTS TO SUPPORT INTENT

Support intent in the results• Search results – do you show the information in the

results people are asking? Enough to make a decision?

• Business goals – are you consciously showing the content the business wants to promote? Does it enhance the user experience?

• Content types – are we showing the information people want? More events for a music search; more venues for restaurant search.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Activities• Review your search logs and interface analytics

• Analyse the interface and failing searches to see intent and understand ways to change it

• Test it in usability sessions – talk aloud when typing in queries and what the people expected the results to be

• Understand your content and how it matches to the intent of the users

• Structure the content better and leverage in the interface or query engine

Thank you

Mags Hanley

Twitter: @magshanley

LinkedIn:

uk.linkedin.com/pub/margaret-hanley/0/180/3a5/