Keyword
entry is not very forgiving. Many of the tennis players'
names are uncommon and difficult to spell. Mechanisms in use
now that are becoming popular are features on Google such as
'Did
you mean Hingis?'
when the user has perhaps misspelled the name and typed
"Hengis", so the user can choose to accept the
correct spelling and do a new search with it if s/he wishes
to.
However,
at least the keywords entered are currently reiterated at
the top of the search page, which allows users to check
whether or not they have made a spelling mistake.
The
total number of matches found is also displayed as well the
matches currently being shown. This provides users with a
good sense of the size of their result set. Most users do
not go past the first or second result pages, so the
provision of a weighted list is very useful as it ensures
the more relevant matches appear at the top of the search
result list.
If a large amount of results are obtained there should be an
option to refine the search and if very few or no results are
returned there should be an option to broaden the search. It is good
practice to provide facilities to broaden or refine a search rather
than 'dead-ending' users with no results or overwhelming them with
too many.
Search results page showing
results weighted by closeness of match to the query
Wimbledon - Usability in Action |
