[Sigia-l] Research and Search Results

[Chris Chandler]

Derek R wrote:

> Therefore, it only stands to reason (common-sense) that categories are
> more successful at producing tangible results.


Interesting.



> is that the presentation of 'category' is the language of the
> IA/Designer, whereas, the presentation of 'search' is the language of
> the user/person.
>
> This is the whole tamale I have recently been talking about -->


Unfortunately, your failure to make obvious distinctions, and your rather, uh, unique style to debate, is keeping that
tamale from being eaten and enjoyed.

Suppose I'm working on revitalizing a rather large but unsatisfying intranet. One of the first problems I spot is that
the "categories" that the navigation of the site is built upon are a mess.

Suppose I ask people from all the departments I can reach to brainstorm new categories and then perform a card sorting
exercise to develop a new multi-level navigation scheme.

Would you still say that these categories were in the language of the IA/Designer and not the users?




> - Categories present what *you think* the customer wants
> - Search presents what *the customer knows* they want


I don't think this is quite correct. I recently searched for "video camera" at Best Buys so yes, it's trivially true I
know I want a "video camera." However, it took me some time and effort to learn "what kind" of video recorder I wanted.
Luckily, many sites break their video camera selection into categories, so I can compare, say, all the digital video
cameras in an apples to apples way.





> Clearly -- search is what the customer asks for and categories are what
> the salesperson suggests.


Your rhetoric is getting ahead of you again. In some cases categories might be what you say they "are" but in other
cases your definition doesn't make sense. In my example before -- the 'category' of 'digital video cameras' is not a
suggestion by the sales team, it is a natural grouping of products based on certain attributes.


>If you want to make money you'll stop
> marketing to the user (categories) and start selling to them instead
> (search):

Hmmm. Just because you have a philosophical/semantic position that you say is ignored by the UIE results doesn't mean
that you then get to ignore their results.

According to UIE's proprietary research, browsing using categories is successful twice as often as using search. Your
conclusion that "if you want to make money, you'll do it with search and not categories" flies in the face of these
results. And, as usual, your inflammatory rhetoric -- pro-eugenic? fascist?? who do you think you'll convince with that
kind of nonsense? -- undermines your otherwise thoughtful contribution.

-cc