Saturday, 2:45pm, Grand Salon B
Our case study will give insight in how to successfully design and implement faceted search functionality. Based on our experiences from building various search applications within a long-running project, we submit that there are three main factors that define the user experience: The structure of the data models, the semantic context of data and whether the visual representation reflects the former two.
A key observation in our work is that apparently similar user needs can trigger very different usability or domain modeling challenges in a project. We will describe these challenges by walking through two real-life examples of search applications while illustrating how the challenges we experienced relate to the three factors mentioned above.
Our main motivation is to improve on the current understanding of faceting by tying stronger links between system models, the users’ mental models and faceted search as a model for interaction. In turn we hope this focus will lead to more pleasant and interesting experiences for users.
INSTRUCTORS
Helle Hoem
Helle Hoem is a senior UX consultant at BEKK, a leading Norwegian business and technology consulting firm. She designs information sites and business applications, and her responsibilities include analysis of user and enterprise needs, interaction design, information architecture and user testing.
Helle holds an M.Sc. in industrial design from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and has been a speaker at several Scandinavian UX conferences.
Kristoffer Dyrkorn
Kristoffer Dyrkorn is a Manager at BEKK, a leading Norwegian business and technology consulting firm. He heads the Search Technology group and works as a systems architect and advisor for Fortune 500 companies and major Norwegian corporations. Kristoffer has a strong interest in visualization and interaction design and strives to make technology serve users better.
When off the clock he is an avid photographer and classical guitar player.