Search Patterns: User Experience Explained

February 19, 2010

The addled goose does not do book reviews. I was asked if I wanted a copy of Search Patterns by Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender. I said, “Sure.” I read the book, and I think that anyone mired in user interface for search and content processing systems will want to snag a copy. For me, the section that was Chapter 4, Design Patterns. The O’Reilly production value is good. The book is stuffed with screenshots. I am not sure when the book will be in the Harrod’s Creek bookstore. You can chase down a copy on Amazon.

After finishing the 180 page book, I kept thinking about the thrashing that goes on among procurement teams and vendors. The procurement teams know what they like when they see, and in my experience, have not too much information about what is required to make a particular interface feasible. The vendors do quite a bit of borrowing from one another. It is possible that some procurement teams will focus on the UX, user experience in the lingo of Microsoft. Maybe that approach will reduce the dissatisfaction among enterprise users of search and content processing systems?

Worth a look.

Stephen E. Arnold, February 19, 2010

No one paid me to read this 180 page book, examine the screenshots, and do some thinking about the shift from search plumbing to the UX. I am not sure to which government agency I report such uncompensated work. Maybe the Library of Congress whose interfaces knock my socks off each time I use LOC.gov.

Comments

One Response to “Search Patterns: User Experience Explained”

  1. Recommended read:Peter Morville on Service Design @Design for Service « Fredzimny's Blog on April 20th, 2010 12:51 pm

    […] Search Patterns: User Experience Explained (arnoldit.com) […]

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