On 6/8/06, David Dorman <dorman_at_indexdata.com> wrote:
> At 09:48 AM 06/08/2006, K.G. Schneider wrote:
> >In 2002, one of the first modifications to Librarians' Internet Index on my
> >watch—a data-driven decision based on what I saw from search log analysis
> >generated for another purpose—was to *remove* the options to refine the
> >search on the front page
...
> Your point is well taken, but we should be
> careful not to elevate very simple or "dumbed
> down" searches to an ideology. The appropriate
> granularity of search and retrieval, represented
> by how articulated indexes are and what search
> functionality is offered to the user, is affected
> by many factors.
I think dumbed-down vs. fully-functional is a false dichotomy. Yes,
it's true that features can be misused. The problem described here is
in general search strategy, right? They're mis-using the faceted
search and failing to find something just outside the net.
What if the UI supported the power-user but summarized things just
outside. If a subject search failed, something like "there are 400
books with foo in the description" might help.
In general, I think you can design for the common case but make more
subtle things available. iTunes, Quicksilver, LibraryThing...
Received on Thu Jun 08 2006 - 11:58:20 EDT