[Sigia-l] ROI/Value of Search Engine Design - Resources?

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of Jared M. Spool
>  
[...]
> If the Search Dominance Theory (which says that some percentage of
> users always uses Search)

That characterization is NOT correct. The characterization was also
used in the UIE article "Are There Users Who Always Search?"
(http://www.uie.com/Articles/always_search.htm).

But Jakob Nielsen's site (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9707b.html)
and his book "Designing Web Usability" define Search Dominance as:

JN> The search-dominant users will usually go straight for the search
JN> button when they enter a website

The above definition does not say "always". It says "usually".

Your characterization exaggerated Nielsen's shades of grey definition
("usually") by turning it into black-and-white ("always"). Your UIE
article then questioned Search Dominance by arguing against the
black-and-white definition. That is not a fair way of arguing.


> is true, then, while observing users use different sites, we should
> see some percentage of those users always using Search.

Because of your exaggerated characterization, what you were looking
for was NOT the Search Dominance as defined by Nielsen.


> 
> Except we didn't. When we watched 30 users each use between three
> and six sites, not a single one of them always used Search.

But were there users who "usually" use search? They were the
Search-Dominant users as defined by Nielsen.


[...]
> I don't know about anyone else, but I'm happy to participate 
> when everyone is treating each other in a professional manner, 

Same here. 

When treating each other in a professional manner, people do not cast
the other person's argument as rhetoric after being told there was a
hole in their own logic.

When treating each other in a professional manner, people follow up
their own logic with reasonable explanation after being told their
logic has problem.


Boniface