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Search Patterns: Design for Discovery [Paperback]

Peter Morville (Author), Jeffery Callender (Author)
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Customers buy this book with Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience (Animal Guide) by Christian Crumlish Paperback $42.65

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Search Patterns is a delight to read -- very thoughtful and thought provoking. It's the most comprehensive survey of designing effective search experiences I've seen."
--Irene Au, Director of User Experience, Google

"I love this book! Thanks to Peter and Jeffery, I now know that search (yes, boring old yucky who cares search) is one of the coolest ways around of looking at the world."
--Dan Roam, author, The Back of the Napkin (Portfolio Hardcover)

"Search Patterns is a playful guide to the practical concerns of search interface design. It contains a bonanza of screenshots and illustrations that capture the best of today's design practices and presents a fresh perspective on the broader role of search and discovery."
--Marti Hearst, Professor, UC Berkeley and author, Search User Interfaces (Cambridge University Press)

"It's not often I come across a book that asks profound questions about a fundamental human activity, and then proceeds to answer those questions with practical observations and suggestions. Search Patterns is an expedition into the heart of the web and human cognition, and for me it was a delightful journey that delivered scores of insights."
--Dave Gray, Founder and Chairman, XPLANE

"Search is swiftly transforming everything we know, yet people don't understand how mavens design search: by stacking breadcrumbs, scenting widgets, and keeping eyeballs on the engine. I urge you to put your eyeballs on this unique and important book."
--Bruce Sterling, Writer, Futurist, and Co-Founder, The Electronic Frontier Foundation

"As one who searches a lot (and often ends up frustrated), Search Patterns is a revelation."
--Nigel Holmes, Designer, Theorist, and Principal, Explanation Graphics

"Search Patterns is a fabulous must-have book! Inside, you'll learn the whys and wheres of practically every modern search design trick and technique."
--Jared Spool, CEO and Founder, User Interface Engineering


Product Description

Search is among the most disruptive innovations of our time. It influences what we buy and where we go. It shapes how we learn and what we believe. In this provocative and inspiring book, you'll explore design patterns that apply across the categories of web, ecommerce, enterprise, desktop, mobile, social, and real-time search and discovery. Filled with colorful illustrations and examples, Search Patterns brings modern information retrieval to life, covering such diverse topics as relevance, faceted navigation, multi-touch, personalization, visualization, multi-sensory search, and augmented reality.

By drawing on their own experience-as well as best practices and evidence-based research-the authors not only offer a practical guide to help you build effective search applications, they also challenge you to imagine the future of discovery. You'll find Search Patterns intriguing and invaluable, whether you're a web practitioner, mobile designer, search entrepreneur, or just interested in the topic.

  • Discover a pattern language for search that embraces user psychology and behavior, information architecture, interaction design, and emerging technology
  • Boost enterprise efficiency and e-commerce sales
  • Enable mobile users to achieve goals, complete tasks, and find what they need
  • Drive design innovation for search interfaces and applications

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (January 26, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596802277
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596802271
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #81,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #68 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Home Computing > Internet > Online Searching
    #48 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Website Architecture & Usability

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Peter Morville
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Jeffery Callender
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for everyone collaborating on a search application, April 12, 2010
This review is from: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (Paperback)
"There's no shortage of problems with search today," says Peter Morville at the end of Search Patterns, his most recent book. Throughout the book, Morville chronicles the challenges of search and effectively communicates the best practices of building usable search experiences. While the book more than adequately accomplishes it's stated goal -- to foster greater cross-disciplinary collaboration by increasing search literacy -- it would have been an even better book if the author had proposed more of his own innovative solutions to search's problems.

In the preface Morville sets out to tear down the walls between disciplines, and at this he succeeds. From user psychology to technical considerations to the specific components of the user interface, Search Patterns has something for everyone involved in implementing search.

The first two chapters lay the groundwork for the rest of the book, discussing both why people search and the individual components that make up search. The book is in full swing by chapter three where Morville discusses user behavior, elements of interaction, and -- my personal favourite -- the principles of design.

In talking about design principles, Morville describes search both as a conversation and a jazz-like improvisation. He urges the architect to make search an easy, simple process to initiate, followed by a progressively more sophisticated toolkit that enables users to iteratively refine their query. He argues for a no-suprises approach to the user interface in which valuable options are highly visible and elements of interaction are easily predictable. Many of the principles are applicable to a much broader context than search alone, but that only stregthens their merit.

The real heart of the book is chapter four, which looks at 10 design patterns over 50 pages. It considers the obvious patterns -- autocomplete, faceted navigation, advanced search -- as well as more disparate groupings like federated search and personalization. I was disappointed that the patterns only summarised existing conventions rather than challenging any bad habits. And while this chapter does consume 30% of the book by page count, it manages to stay at a very high level, even to a fault. I would have preferred more permutations and analysis of the cornerstone patterns, such as faceted navigation, while spinning some of the less well-defined patterns into chapters of their own for more consideration.

However, the lack of innovative solutions or granular analysis is quelled by the wealth of thought-provoking examples throughout the book, with an especially high concentration of desktop, mobile, and even kiosk visuals in chapter five.

The final chapter of the book is a forward-looking vision of what search could look like in the distant future, as well as what it probably won't look like (sorry, no "knowledge navigator" robot assistants). While an enjoyable thought exercise, I would have preferred more concrete insights into the near-future possibilities for search (collaborative, task-oriented searching, for example).

Despite a lack of new ideas, Search Patterns is a must-read for everyone collaborating on a search application. It will give your team of designers, engineers, and business stakeholders a common vocabularly and greater awareness of the many sides of search.

Morville ends the book -- as I will end this review -- by urging the reader to get to work on making search better: "For every unsolved problem," he says, "there are countless instances in which we know the solution, but nobody has bothered to implement it. Discipline and attention to detail would go a long way toward improving the world of search."

You should get started by reading this book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Search is becoming the universal solvent, February 17, 2010
By Steven Forth (Cambridge MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (Paperback)
Peter Morville's book Ambient Findability is one of the best books on search in its personal and social context, and probably my favourite non-technical O'Reilly book. Once you have read Ambient Findability this is a good follow-up.

Search is becoming a universal solvent in software and media - it has transformed publishing and advertising and is poised to transform business intelligence, enterprise content management, data integration ... and when combined with augmented realities, geolocation and social networks will change how we live with each other. It is a big topic.

There are many things to like about this book: it is visually strong and makes good use of illustrations to bring abstract concepts to life; it covers the basics well; it reinforces the importance of context in search and computing generally (we have to think of context as a first-order object); it expands ones conception or search, search interfaces and the search experience.

I do have a couple of caveats - I agree with another reviewer that this is patterns lite, so lite that I question whether these deserve the name patterms. It does not meet the standards for clear thinking and presentation set in the Gang of Four book. This is not a problem unique to this book, over the past few years there have been many books that play loose with the pattern meme. I would also have appreciated a deeper dive on the emerging role of semantics in search. The best example of this is the role that GoodRelations is playing is searching and finding products on eCommerce sites. I suspect that open and evolving ontologies like Good Relaitons will transform search over the next decade.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A recommended pick for any library strong in web and search engine references, May 16, 2010
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Search Patterns: Design for Discovery (Paperback)
Peter Morville and Jeffrey Callender's SEARCH PATTERNS is also a recommended pick for any library strong in web and search engine references. It uses the authors' experiences and best practices alike to demonstrate pattern language, more effective searches and strategies that boost e-commerce sales, and more. Any library strong in web design must have this search-specific reference.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book - Poor Production
As a first attempt on virtually unknown waters (search, despite decades of research remains such) it would be hard to imagine a more thought provoking book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Patrick L. Durusau

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are involved in Search, read this.
This is an excellent quick read, written by people at the leading edge of this industry who understand the Web, its legacy and its potential. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Brian Cooper

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable
Wow. Just. Wow "Search Patterns" by Peter Morville & Jeffrey Callender is stunning. And stunningly useful. Thanks for writing this, guys! Read more
Published 6 months ago by Joe Sokohl

5.0 out of 5 stars The Future of Search As Information Behavior & User Experience
This excellent look at the present and future applications of Search Technology is an Intelligent Person's review of the Current and Future Implications of Search as Information... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ira Laefsky

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for anyone involved in Search
Excellent book - and must read for anyone involved in Search.

Lots of examples and good review of the current patterns and best practices in search. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Subvocalization

5.0 out of 5 stars Good one
Search Patterns, as well as Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become, is very good book that helps to understand the big picture of interconnected user experience,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Khizzr

3.0 out of 5 stars Suggestions to build search engine interfaces
It presents different patterns, but not discussed in depth, or give ideas, suggestions or information really useful. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Ricardo Fanjul Fandiño

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