Best Practices in Search User Interface Design

Abstract

The Internet has become a powerful tool for information search and ecommerce. Millions of people use the World Wide Web on a regular basis and the number is increasing rapidly. For many common tasks, users first need to locate a Web site(s) containing needed information from among the estimated 4 trillion existing web pages. The most common method used to search for information is the search engine. However, even sophisticated users often have difficulty navigating through the complexity of search engine interfaces. Designing more effective and efficient search engines is contingent upon a significant improvement in the search user interface.