Haystack Blog

can you identify what’s happening when users are searching?  can you tell who are novices and who are experts?  can you tell when a searcher is frustrated? what are signals for search success? – query formulation – evaluation speed – query formulation process (systematic) use of operators might mean experts. not considering experts/novices, or successes, [...]

In 1981, Elaine Rich predicted in a paper called “Users are individuals” [1] that as digital information tools became increasingly capable, they would empower people to assume more tasks and responsibilities. This tendency would, in turn, drive a demand for better tools — tools that let people complete their tasks more easily, efficiently and accurately, [...]