[Sigia-l] Findability is dead, Long live ummm... Meaning?

[Jared M. Spool]

At 04:02 PM 3/29/2003 -0500, Listera wrote:
> > note: an e-commerce site is probably not that interested in shoppers
> >     engaging in "knowleding activities."
>
>In one sense, Amazon, for example, places a book in multiple planes (similar
>books, popularity in companies/countries, rank, favorites' lists, affinity
>with other purchasable items, etc) that together anchor it in "a larger,
>more general, context." And that's perhaps the main point of both selling
>and customer appreciation at the Amazon site.

Indeed.

Having now had the opportunity to watch many, many people shop online, I 
can say with all confidence that knowledge-gaining activities rule the 
shopping experience. People wish to make informed purchase decisions.

To do so, they use the information they gather in the site's IA to make 
their decisions. They make assumptions of the content based on it's 
relative structure to other content. You can tell a good IA from a poor IA 
on an e-commerce site by how much it helps users make their shopping 
choices at all levels.

My gut tells me those who say finding is different from knowledge-gaining 
hasn't watched people try and make complex decisions using online content.

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal
User Interface Engineering
242 Neck Road
Bradford, MA 01835
978 374 8300
jspool at uie.com
http://www.uie.com