Designing Search User Interfaces
Anders Salander · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) · 2011
Searching for information has become a natural task in today's society. Nowadays more than 2 billion people are connected to the Internet and using some kind of search functionality for finding information is a central activity. The amount of digital information that is produced puts high constraints on the design of search interfaces.This master thesis report presents a proof-of-concept design and implementation of a search user interface. The main focus of the project is usability, especially in the aspects of navigation and content presentation. There are many features that can support the user during the search activity and this interface has been developed on the basis of these features. The report describes an iterative user-centered design process that served as the foundation during the proof-of-concept development. The target user group has been involved throughout the project and the design has been evaluated on several stages in the design process and the proposed interface was well received by the target users. An interactive high- delity prototype was implemented in Adobe Flex 3 for the purpose of evaluation and demonstration.