search facility

[gibbon]

We are currently rewriting our ecommerce software.

At the moment we are focussing on the "search facility"

We are scratching our heads as to how to best present the search results on the page and how to design the search box.

Do we sort by price, name or other? Do we use an advanced search or a very simple search?

Could anyone offer any pointers / threads to help us?

Thanks

Gibbon

[graywolf]

Give customers the abilty to sort any way they choose to name/price etc. Also try to let them sort either up or down. I ahve also had a lot of success with suggestions (did you mean widgets).

start with a simple search and offer advanced if you can, let the user decide.

Jakob Nielsen had something in his last book about the size of search boxes ( i think he said at least 25 but not sure) and that they should also be on the homepage if possible

[killroy]

I've always had great success by doing a "full text" search across all data fields, so one could search for name, price, item numbers and keywords or description from the simple search box.

The, optionally, offer an advanced search where they can chosoe price ranges and categories and the like.

SN

[gibbon]

Good stuff thanks.

What is the consensus regarding putting "best buys" towards the top of search results?

Also is it worth putting a "relevancy" and "newness" filter as opposed to just a simple "alphanumeric" results page?

Gibbon

[khuntley]

Gibbon,
If your programmers have the ability to add in a relevancy filter by all means add it. That is the essence of search; to return the most relevant data. It saves users time rather than sorting through alphanumeric.

More sites should have relevancy filters, but they can be difficult to develop.

Kevin