RE: Designing Very Specific Web Interfaces

["Hager, Harry (US - East Brunswick)" <hhager -at- dc -dot- com>]

Ruth,

The group I am working for produces Web-based software that performs
datamining on very large databases. 

The search engine metaphor is not powerful enough for our use.

Seems to me that the basics of your issues are that you have a defined
database and you want your customer to be able to search that database.

The software we produce is designed around query windows (these are windows
that display in the browser at the customer site). The query windows let the
user select from a drop down list of available databases and fields they
want to query. Then the user is also able to enter any specific values they
want to search for. The user searches the database on our server at our site
and the results are displayed to the user. 

In short, we let the user identify the database and the fields they want to
search and then we let them identify the values they want to search for. 

However, building this application is not a trivial task. Our developers
user Oracle, ColdFusion, JavaScript, etc. 

Another idea. Spend some time visiting lots of Web site that let customers
search through for product information. For example, look at Staples, Toys R
Us, Kohler, Delta (I've been looking for plumbing fixtures lately) and scads
of others. You'll quickly discover that some search metaphors are better and
more powerful than others.

Good Luck. 

H. Jim Hager
hhager -at- dc -dot- com
Deloitte Consulting
Pittsburgh Solution Center


-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Designing a Very Specific Web Interface
From: Ruth Lundquist <rlundquist -at- prosarcorp -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 16:27:02 -0600
X-Message-Number: 73

(I've searched google for "web interface design" as well as "search engine 
design" and various mutations thereof. I've also spent some time reading 
many links on webpagesthatsuck While finding a lot of good info, I 
don't see anything that specifically applies to my situation.)

That said, do any of you gurus have thoughts on the following:

My company builds databases of documents for clients (we don't author the 
documents--they come from a variety of sources), which the clients access 
via a secure web site hosted by us. We call these databases "libraries" and 
customers currently search for documents in their libraries using a 
remarkably ugly & unintuitive interface that we've designed.

Based on customer feedback & our need to market a professional looking 
product, we are redesigning the search interface. My gut-feeling is that 
the interface should look, feel, and function more like a search engine 
you'd find on the web (google, alta vista, dogpile, et al), because many 
people are familiar with using that type of search interface.

It differs from a search engine, however, in that it is not a full text 
search. Customers can search using specific criteria only. For example, 
manufacturer, trade name, CAS #, ingredient, or user-defined data which is 
entered about the document. They can not search the content of the actual 
document. This search functionality is core to our business & is not 
something that will be changed (so please don't suggest that--we want it 
this way & more importantly so do our customers).

My question is this:
Do any of you have suggestions for designing search engine-like web pages? 
Other than simply looking at how other search engines are designed? Or 
would it make more sense to design a more application-like interface with 
the criteria listed in drop-down boxes and with fields for entering 
specific information? (FYI, we will build the interface, not purchase a 
search engine to run against our database.)

Please reply to the list. Thanks in advance.


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