Different Faces of Search
Users search in a variety if different ways ranging from information retrieval to exploratory searches.  Understanding these differences allows us to be more refined in our analysis and solutions design.

Deconstructing Some Searches
Examples of very different types of search, and analysis of how they differ.

Information Scent
Characteristics of presentation that allow users to asses relevance of information without having to read the information in details.

Information Patches
Information is patchy.  We have to help user quickly navigate TO patches of information, and then help them navigate WITHIN the patches.

Information Diet
There are always different ways of filling a request for information, and users choose depending on situational notions of profitability. This implies that information providers might well provide variants of information differing in key dimensions.

Information Diet Examples
Some applications of the information diet concept.

Interacting With Search Results
Getting to a search result is often not the end of a process, but the beginning.  Where might the user want to go? What might they want to do next?

Search Results and Representations
Search results often fit into larger activities.  We discuss examples where search fills a pre-determined framework, or is used to shape the framework itself.