I came across this wonderful design pattern that is employed by eBay in its search results. What’s so hot about this?
Performing a search is a difficult process, not so much by what is returned but understanding what isn’t. As a result, it can be difficult to anticipate the effect of changing search parameters since it’s often unpredictable whether you’ll receive a larger or smaller result set–or more signal and less noise.
This pattern, however, identifies that concern and provides a comparative display of what else is out there if you were to loosen or constrict your parameters a bit. For me, I was looking for a mid-century modern sofa near Phoenix. I’m open to other possibilities though, and with this pattern I can start to juggle my priorities intelligently. Do I really care if it’s local–or am I more concerned that it adheres to a certain style?
Years ago, right when the Google API first came out, I wrote a prototype that performed a synonym search using Princeton’s Wordnet service. The goal there was to provide a better search experience for a user who might not know the best terms to use when articulating a query. So, a user could identify a terms that they were unsure of by prefixing it with a character–I used a tilde.
A standard search would be performed but additional information would be returned that showed alternative terms and the number of results. That way, a user could re-assess their keywords in case the results didn’t meet their expectations. Thankfully, Google ended up doing this on its own. And it used the tilde too. But I digress.
Good find! I like this approach because it does the work for you and all you have to do is click a link: “Don’t let me guess how the system works. Just help me find a pile of things that sorta matches what I’m looking for.”
Going back to the whole shopping-browsing loop, too, here at this step you’re not looking for the BEST mid-century modern couch, just any and all so you can filter down yourself.
I also like the “Get more results with fewer keywords” that they offer on the regular search page. The same functionality on a different page… very useful when trying to find something specific.
Example:
http://search.ebay.com/tottenham-hotspur-soccer-ball
@Mike - I hadn’t seen that before. Very cool. It’s interesting to see how this pattern can apply to both a fixed vocabulary (my example) and a free one (your example).
@Gino - the only issue I have with this pattern is simply my own personal tendency to stray from the hunt. Sure, I can now make informed tradeoffs, but I’m more inclined to think: “hmm, I wonder what’s over here…” I get pivot-itis and absolutely waste two hours browsing stuff I’ll never buy.
But that’s my problem so I can’t fault the pattern!
Oomblog is a stream of thoughts, ostensibly focused on user experience.
