[Sigia-l] length of nav labels

[Jared M. Spool]

At 09:27 AM 8/10/2005, Eric Scheid wrote:
>On 10/8/05 10:25 PM, "Jared M. Spool" <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
>
> > There are many other techniques for *discovering* the trigger words, such
> > as field research, open-ended usability testing (including interview-based
> > tasks), and the dreaded focus groups.
>
>and of course: search logs :-)

Yes, indeed. Search logs are a tool that our clients rarely use, but turns 
out to be very valuable.

A tip we learned with using Search logs: They are more valuable if you can 
determine the page from which the user entered the search term. On most 
sites (Amazon is a *big* exception), only a small percentage of search 
terms are entered from the home page. Usually, the user clicks a few pages 
in before entering their term. Knowing which page they are coming from can 
give you a lot of information about the design of that page (and the path 
they took to get there).

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal
User Interface Engineering
4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d
Middleton, MA 01949
978 777-9123
jspool at uie.com
http://www.uie.com