[Sigia-l] search interface as IA
Eric Reiss
elr at e-reiss.com
Fri Oct 8 03:17:43 EDT 2004
I cant say Im as impressed by this site as my namesake from Sydney.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital didnt really do away with the main
navigation, it just hid the choices in a dropdown menu. But I approve
of using Search as a main feature on a site like this and the design
is wonderfully clean.
There are, however, a couple of dumb usability problems, among others
that the category Health information is only available from the
main page. Slightly more worrisome is that while a search for
cancer leads to lots of pages, a search for a more specific
disease, such as Non-Hodgkins comes up with no matches. Thats
because the engine isnt indexing the subscription content under
Health information not good if the search engine is a key part of
the navigation scheme.
The labels are not always optimal, sometimes requiring insider
knowledge on the part of the visitor. Also, Sarasota should probably
also talk to Pat Lynch at the Yale Medical Center, who discovered
that a label like Find a Physician is a turn-off to non-academics
who just want to Find a Doctor.
The Find a Physician section has another problem it comes back
with a 404 error if you search via keywords. Probably just a minor
glitch. But
the interface requires users to know what type of
specialist they need.
For example, if youve developed a facial palsey, such as Bells, how
would you know to search for an otolaryngologist? I dont think most
lay people would know this. And if they learn this through their
primary care physician, theyll probably also get a specific referral
to a specialist which makes the Sarasota site somewhat superfluous.
Finally, this site plays elevator music on the front page which I
cannot abide. But it certainly conjured up associations of waiting
rooms. All part of building the user experience, I guess
Just my 2 cents. If Sarasota wants more, itll start to get
expensive:)
Cheers,
Eric
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eric reiss
principal
e-reiss aps
copenhagen, denmark
http://www.e-reiss.com
office: (+45) 39 29 67 77
mobile: (+45) 20 12 88 44
e-reiss is an official sponsor of the
Usability Professionals' Association
http://www.upassoc.org
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