The elements of a search experience
There are many references to the elements of search experience in the literature. For example, in Search Patterns, authors Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender call out five parts of the search ‘anatomy’: users, creators, content, engine, and interface.
In Designing the Search Experience, authors Tony Russell-Rose and Tyler Tate call out four ‘dimensions’ of the search experience: users, goals, context, modes.
Finally, Martin White, in his book, Enterprise Searchemphasises user, technology and governance.
Don’t worry if you don't understand these terms. You will soon.
By synthesising the findings from the literature and layering them with our experience with search implementations, we can see that eight elements make up a search experience. These are:
- Goals
- User
- Interface
- Content
- Context
- Technology
- Governance
We'll cover each of these elements in the following chapters.