How should we display search results? The next few patterns seek an answer. Since most queries produce too many results for one screen, pagination is a common solution. Google established the most popular pattern in the form of 10 blue links. And while competitors such as Microsoft's Bing are busy decrying the end of this model, it's still alive and kicking as the dominant standard across desktop, web, and mobile platforms.
Of course, the 10 blue links don't really stand alone. Google's results page is a complex, high-density interface. Designers are forced to count every pixel, because every pixel counts. Features include format filters along the top, dual boxes for query refinement, a variety of tools and advanced search options, invitations to explore related searches, and a pagination control for accessing paged content. Last but not least, there are snippets.
Snippets are the heart and soul of search results. To pinch a phrase from multitouch, the content is the interface. The snippet reveals the aboutness of each result while also serving as the link to live and cached versions and to similar results. A purple link means you've already visited, an important and helpful clue for determining the next click. The two lines of text are selected for optimal scent. They provide a concise summary of the result or a brief excerpt with the keywords in context. A URL offers hints about the source and subject of the result. And throughout the snippet, query keywords are highlighted to reveal the reason for inclusion. That's a lot of work for a simple snippet.
Bing, shown in Figure 4-42, takes snippets a step further by presenting additional text and links from the destination site whenever a user hovers over a particular search result.
Of course, the anatomy of a snippet must adapt to fit each platform, format, and context. In mobile, snippets must be short. In reference and news and enterprise applications, URLs may be useless. And for images and video, a picture's worth a thousand words.
A linear list isn't the only way to organize results. As Figure 4-44 illustrates, the television and movie discovery service Jinni uses size (and layout) to show sort order.
In e-commerce, photos of each product are important. So is choice. At Yahoo! Shopping, users can choose whether they see 15, 30, or 45 results in list or grid view. They also have a wide variety of sort options and can select multiple items for a side-by-side comparison.
Despite all this flexibility, disruption is an inherent problem of pagination. When users advance to the next set of results, the page refresh often disrupts flow. Inline paging is one solution. At Endless.com, for instance, when users advance to the next result page, the old snippets fade out and new ones appear. The rest of the interface stays stable. The user feels like she never leaves the page. However, after scrolling down through results, there's still a disconcerting jump from page bottom to top. Nothing's perfect!
Several solutions are currently employed in mobile. Apple's iTunes offers to Show 25 More at the end of each list. Amazon abolishes paging with virtual scrolling. Progressive loading ensures that the first few results are shown immediately, then, as users scroll down, more results load automatically. Kayak appears to load all matching flights, but sort and filter options are available to refine results and avoid endless scrolling.
Infinite scroll and inline paging offer clear benefits, but they come at a cost. First, they're simply more expensive to implement. Second, they may initially confuse users who have become used to the standard model. Third, they may frustrate attempts to bookmark or share a link to a specific set of results. Don't forget the power of the page!
Clearly, the pattern of pagination is linked to the composition of the snippet. We must find a balance between the richness of each snippet and the number of results per page. That is, unless our application affords the freedom to try something unorthodox, like a zooming user interface (ZUI) that positions all results within an infinite virtual desktop.
In summary, careful attention to pagination delivers results. That's the bottom line. Snippets are central, serving as both content and interface. But one snippet will not fit all. The ideal composition is shaped by platform, format, and context. Flexible sort and filter options are also important. While best first defines the default, users deserve control. That's the genius of faceted navigation. Incremental clarification and refinement reduce results until the need for paging and scrolling virtually disappears.
