Search Result Optimization. Stand out to surprise customers.Search

The result page is an interface. Most marketing treats it as a leaderboard.

Eight topics about what actually happens in front of the screen, in the two seconds that decide whether your page is opened.

On this page

What it is
Human-computer interaction studies what happens in front of the screen, in the seconds that decide whether a page is opened.
The problem until now
Visitors were counted as traffic, so what a reader can see, hold and remember never entered the plan.
What you can do from here
You can design a page for attention, memory and the moment a person stops searching.
Human-computer interaction: the result page is scanned, attention decides the click and what is remembered
Human-computer interaction: How the parts depend on each other.
Contents 3

Try this first

Three tests, about five minutes. They show what a reader takes from a result page.

Tests on this page you have run: 0 of 3. The count stays in this browser only.

Test: Human-computer interaction

  1. Search your topic, look at the result page for two seconds, then look away.
  2. Write down what you remember.
  3. Think: was your entry among it?

What survives two seconds of attention.

Test

  1. Open your most important page and read only the headings.
  2. Put it aside for a moment.
  3. Think: do the headings alone carry the message?

What survives scanning.

Test

  1. Search a question you actually have and stop the moment you feel you know enough.
  2. Note what you got, before you open anything else.
  3. Think: what ended the search?

Where a search really ends.

Rankings are read by people under time pressure, with limited attention, on a layout somebody else designed.

Topics in this field

Search user interfaceThe layout decides how much of your answer a person ever sees.Interactive information retrievalPeople reformulate because they have learned something.Information foragingThe decision to stay is made before the first paragraph is finished.Visual hierarchyMost readers will see four things on your page.Eye trackingAttention is a prerequisite.SensemakingTen good answers to ten narrow questions can still leave someone unable to decide.Cognitive loadA reader who has to work to follow you has less capacity left for deciding.Usability testingA perfectly usable page can still be the wrong page.Visual searchEvery result page and every web page is a visual search task.Dual-process theoryPeople judge a result page in a second and think carefully only when something makes them stop.

These pages describe how that reading works and what follows from it for anyone who wants to be found and understood.

The other fields

Everything in this field, on one screen

Each point is a page of human computer interaction. Drag, zoom, and click a point to open that page. The whole site is drawn on the knowledge graph.

Human computer interaction

See this field inside the whole site →