The answer changes the question
by Pete Bell
Pete Bell
The new O’Reilly book Search Patterns: Design for Discovery just came out, and they’re offering the first chapter free.
It’s by Peter Morville, the co-author (with Louis Rosenfeld) of O’Reilly’s information architecture bible, the “polar bear” book. Many of our Endeca readers will recognize him as the keynote of our 2008 Discover conference, where he presented an early version of some of this material. Peter’s co-author, Jeffery Callender, is actually a co-illustrator, which means the visual story telling is excellent.
The definition of search in this book is expansive, encompassing browsing, visualization, wayfinding, etc. More importantly, it’s about designing the interplay of those features so that users can complete discovery tasks. Which is to say, HCIR is at the center of this book. Here’s a good summary of the vision (p.9):
“As any concierge or librarian will avow, their jobs aren’t simply to answer questions. They first conduct exploratory conversations or reference interviews to better understand what we want and why. A hotel guest who asks for a local area map may be on her way to a restaurant that closed last month. The concierge can identify a suitable alternative and call ahead for reservations. A library patron who wants an old issue of Consumer Reports may be buying a new car, and he may not know the library provides access to an online database of reviews and ratings. The librarian can help jumpstart his search. Oftentimes, due to a gap in knowledge or language, the searcher isn’t able to ask the right question.
That’s why search at its best is a conversation. It’s an iterative, interactive process where we find we learn. The answer changes the question. The process moves the goal. Search has the power to suggest, define, refine, cross-sell, upsell, relate, and educate….Search is the world’s most popular teacher. As designers, we must expand our vision beyond finding to incorporate learning.”
There’s a lot to discuss here, so more to come.
