In case you missed it last time (since it filled up pretty quickly), there’s another chance to catch my full-day designing search tutorial in London on April 25. I’ll be presenting a full day course called Search Usability: Filters and Facets, which focuses on faceted search and provides deeper coverage of the key topics along with a variety of practicals and group exercises.
For further details and registration, see the UKeIG event page. In the meantime, I’ve appended further details below.
Hope to see you there!
Description
This course will provide an introduction to the design of search user experiences with a focus on the fundamental principles of faceted search and navigation.
Who should attend?
Intranet/web managers, information architects, search specialists, developers and managers of search projects, or anyone who either has implemented or is planning to implement a search application and wants to maximise the usability and effectiveness of their investment.
Previous delegate feedback
“Really useful, informative”
“One of the best courses I’ve attended”
Programme
Faceted search offers tremendous potential for transforming the search experience. It provides a flexible framework that can satisfy a wide variety of user needs, from simple fact retrieval to complex exploratory search. It is now the dominant interaction paradigm for most library sites and is increasingly applied to a wide range of search applications. However, with this power comes a challenge: what kinds of categorisation schemes are effective and how should we use them to support search and navigation? How can we design search experiences that integrate effectively with other user journeys and tasks? Above all, how can we deliver search applications that address a diverse range of user needs and goals without compromising usability?
The course will include both presentations and group work to enable delegates to analyse, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of search applications within their own organisation. You will:
- Explore the fundamental concepts of Human-centred design for information search and discovery
- Learn how to differentiate between various types of search behaviour: known-item, exploratory, lookup, learning, investigation, etc.
- Understand the dimensions of search usability and how to apply them to different user contexts
- Study the basic principles of faceted classification and how to use them to deliver effective search and navigation experiences
Course Presenter:
Tony Russell-Rose is founder and chief scientist at 2dSearch, a start-up applying artificial intelligence, natural language processing and data visualisation to create the next generation of advanced search tools. He is also director of UXLabs, a research and design consultancy specialising in complex search and information access applications. Before founding UXLabs he was Manager of User Experience at Oracle and editor of the Endeca UI Design Pattern Library, a resource dedicated to best practice in the design of search and discovery experiences. Prior to this he was technical lead at Reuters, specialising in advanced user interfaces for information access and search. And before Reuters he was Group Manager at Canon Research Centre Europe, where he led a team developing next generation information access products and services.
His academic qualifications include a PhD in human-computer interaction, an MSc in cognitive psychology and a first degree in engineering, majoring in human factors. He was recently appointed Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor of Cognitive Computing and AI at Essex University, and in his spare time likes to try breaking the record for world’s most ridiculously long job title. He has published some 80+ scientific papers on information retrieval, natural language processing and human computer interaction, and is co-author of “Designing the Search Experience: the Information Architecture of Discovery“, published by Elsevier in 2013.
