{"id":903,"date":"2013-01-30T14:50:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T14:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/?p=903"},"modified":"2013-01-30T14:50:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T14:50:27","slug":"new-book-designing-the-search-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"New Book: Designing the Search Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Remember the Yahoo! Directory<\/a>? It was a hand-built taxonomy that allowed users to browse and discover Internet resources. By categorizing sites by topic and location, it became the definitive map of the World Wide Web. But at the turn of the millennium, Yahoo!<\/a> transformed itself from a directory into a search engine. The task of organizing so many disparate items into a single coherent structure had simply become too overwhelming.<\/p>\n

A decade later, this story is all too familiar. Online stores sell hundreds of thousands of items, social networks host millions of users, and Flickr hosts billions of photos. Navigation is no longer the future: Search is the key to sense-making in the digital universe.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite the growing influence of search on our daily lives, relatively few non-academic books have been published on the subject. While there are dozens of titles about designing web navigation, those on designing search can be counted on the fingers of one hand.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Tyler Tate and I set out to write Designing the Search Experience: The information architecture of discovery<\/em>. For the last year and half we have been researching, drafting, and editing\u2014striving to transform our ideas and insights into a coherent narrative.<\/p>\n

To help maintain our focus we established three fundamental principles to guide the writing process:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Integrated:<\/strong> Theoretical frameworks for human information seeking should be tightly integrated with practical design solutions, helping readers understand what, why, and how.<\/li>\n
  2. Holistic:<\/strong> individual design patterns should be related to the overall user experience, and search itself re-framed within the broader context of analysis and discovery-oriented problem solving.<\/li>\n
  3. Readable:<\/strong> The tone of voice should be informal and approachable, and the narrative driven by examples.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A brief summary is appended below. If you\u2019d like to see more \u2013 including a free sample chapter \u2013 check out the book website<\/a>. If you\u2019re interested in reviewing it, drop us a line.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Designing the Search Experience: the Information Architecture of Discovery<\/h2>\n
    by Tony Russell-Rose and Tyler Tate<\/address>\n

    Search is not just a box and ten blue links. Search is a journey: an exploration where what we encounter along the way changes what we seek. But in order to guide people along this journey, we must understand both the art and science of search.<\/p>\n

    WHAT YOU\u2019LL LEARN<\/h3>\n

    Designing the Search Experience weaves together the theories<\/strong> of information seeking with the practice<\/strong> of user interface design. This definitive guide will enable you to:<\/p>\n