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The Boston Internet Special Interest Group (SIG) gathered in Back Bay to discuss the usability of search engines. Several of Boston's Society of Technical Communication members gathered at IDX Systems Corporation in Boston to discuss the usefulness of search engines on the Web. SIG member, Chauncy Wilson, couldn't make it, but he sent a link to some material on the evening's subject.
After a brief networking period, the members gathered in front of a PC and began the discussion. Jennifer Kove started by asking if anyone had read Jared Spool's latest book on Web Usability. Everyone present had either read the book or heard Jared speak at a conference. Jennifer asked what people thought about Jared's assertion that search engines actually hurt usability.
Joyce Thomas, information designer, and CBT (computer-based training) expert questioned the results Jared had reached. She respects that he is among some of the only folks out there performing these tests, but wondered how much interpretation he imposed upon his statistics. Gary Gray, webmaster and technical writer, agreed. He thinks it is interesting that a testing crew reached this conclusion. Gary concurred that there are many poorly designed search engines but wasn't ready to conclude that adding one would hurt more than help.
We listed some of the problems with common search engines on the web. You receive:
We also recognized that there are inconsistencies among the Boolean search variables for some of the popular search engines. In some cases you should put quotations around a phrase if you want the exact results. In others, you use a plus (+) sign between every word. There are no standards yet! Many sites sprinkle different levels of searching throughout a web site. Users do not always realize they have other options elsewhere in the site. It takes users several minutes and many attempts to find the information they seek. Sometimes they don't find it at all! So, why is there such a demand for this information retrieval tool on the web? This was not an answer we would reach that night.
Steve and Kate, were trying to decide the best approach for a product on the Intranet at Fidelity. They need to provide their users with a tool that will allow their coworkers to query the Intranet and get answers quickly while on the road. These answers are related to policies and procedures distributed throughout 6000 web pages. They wondered if they should provide a structured search, an index, or a regular search engine.
Gary and Jen had performed some usability testing on their company's web-based products. They found that when a web page acts like a product, that users expect familiar tools from software applications. That is, they seemed to expect an index, a contents section and a context-sensitive help of some sort. And, everyone wanted a Search button. They shared an interesting discovery about products that had a site map. Despite the users' assertion that this was a great idea and something they thought they would use, when they were in the test trying to find information, most users skipped over the Site Map. We decided there are things that the user thinks he/she wants, and then there are things that actually work. We also discussed that a poorly designed Site Map is not necessarily better than none at all. This being said, we suggested that the Fidelity folks include a Search, a Site Map, and an Index for their site. We hoped that if the Index was well designed, it would save the site. The Index provides a human-oriented locating tool. Done, right, Indexes can be the easiest way for a designer to help an audience. However, the search capability is there for those users who insist on having one. Also, we thought it might be possible to provide a structured search with a custom-built database behind it.
We wondered how difficult it was to set up a search engine on a site. If the engine wasn't usable, was it worth the effort? Jennifer pointed out that many software products come with built in search engine software. Technically, it is not hard to implement a search form. Does that mean it is just as easy to use? The group concluded that the simpler a site, the more cumbersome a search utility becomes.
Someone asked about how to get a site to show up on the top of someone's search on the Web. Gary Gray pointed out that the home site designer could add Meta tags. Indexing web crawlers would record these first. For example, if you are a healthcare software company and want to show up on a list when someone searches for the phrase healthcare software, you can embed meta tags ahead of time in various pages on your site. A designer is allowed about three or four index phrases embedded in Meta tags.
At this point in our meeting we had discussed various experts' findings, our own observations and experiences with search engines, and that they are not yet standard.
Joyce brought up the advent of intelligent help. Artificial intelligence, or agents, are now providing the users the ability for their help system to learn their behavior. If you repeat certain activities, the help system will remember the tasks and ask you if need help with them. Microsoft Word is using this type of help in their Office product. On the Web, there are now similar features called wizards. We surfed the Web and visited the MIT Media Lab. Using Lycos search, we found that relatively quickly. However, to actually find appropriate information about these new agents, took a bit more time.
It was getting towards the end of our meeting so we wrapped up by sharing the global search engines we like to use most. There were mixed reviews of Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista (which really runs Yahoo too), and WebMonkey. Internet SIG manager, Jennifer Kove thanked everyone for coming and welcomed them to return in the future.