Sense-Making, Search Systems, & Site Optimization

When people want to locate and discover information, they can simply type keywords into a search engine (not only Google) and select items from the first page of search results, right? This is the current mental model of how search/retrieval works for most users of all ages.

Sense-making is a searcher behavior that information architects, user experience (UX) and usability pros should not ignore. Search listings not only should make sense to individuals, they should also make sense to groups of people.

This workshop will answer the following questions:

• Which parts of a search listing must make sense to people before they will click (or tap) on a link?
• Where does sense-making occur during different parts of a search task?
• What do common search systems use for display in search listings?
• Does the type of search query affect the type of information that must make sense in search listings? (Short answer: yes!)

How can we architect search listings so that they make sense for multiple target audiences?

During this workshop you’ll learn how to implement sense-making and search into personas, using a base template. Each attendee can tailor his or her persona based on what they learn in the tutorial. Based on both free and paid tools, you’ll learn where and how to implement different approaches and how to use search metrics to measure on an ongoing basis.

Finally, we’ll cover how to architect and optimize different types of search listings… because searchers exhibit multiple behaviors based on partially known and unknown item searching.

NOTE: This isn’t just a search engine optimization (SEO) workshop. Sense-making is at the core of this tutorial.