How to avoid losing money on site searchJens Hofman HansenDigital business developerVertica A/STwitter: @hofman

Cat-editionWorld Usability Day, Nov 12, 2015

Why is it interesting?Because users who search convert better

Think aloud tests* 9 users on 8 sites

matas.dk, coop.dk, shop.cph.dk, ikea.dk, zalando.dk, smartguy.dk, wupti.com, coolshop.dk

Mobile & desktop 228 test cases in total

*Users did not know we were interested in search

METODE

28% of all users concluded that the web shop didn’t sell the product

#1 Can the user find

the search field?

#2 RelevanceToleranceSynonyms

Of all users only see the first search results page

And infinite scroll does not help

Guidelines

82 %

Look in the search log

T shirt (4) Tshirt (1915) T-shirt (44)

#3Auto-suggest

akaSearch-suggestAuto-complete

Type-aheadSearch assist

I more and more expect that search fields give me usable suggestions. When I typed in Nordli it said ”dresser” below and then I thought, ’I can type in Nordli dresser’. So it helped me being more precise already at the search field”

#1: Popular search queries

What did other users search for?

Inspiration and guidance

Auto-suggest

Auto-suggest

#2: Mini results Actual results Good for

efficiency and promotion of selected pages

Auto-suggest

#3: The hybrid Be careful!

Auto-suggest

Think of Performance Keyboard support

Auto-suggest

#4Facetted search

Filtering Used very rarely - 10-15% of

search cases But it is very useful

Facetteret søgning

”It is hard to be precise here. It is hard to say ‘500 kr’ is the price I want to filter on”

What did we hear about? Visibility of the search field Relevance and tolerance Search suggest Facetted search / filtering

What did we also hear about? Basic think aloud tests still

reveal huge usability problems even on established, commercial sites

User insight can easily be converted into big bucks

Thanks! Get the free (Danish) book at: http://bit.ly/1M645dA

Jens Hofman HansenDigital business developerVertica A/STwitter: @hofman