Nielsen Norman Group
UX research and consulting firm (NN/g), founded by Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman. NN/g produces evidence-based usability research across the web, much of it directly relevant to search interfaces: how users scan search-results pages, when scoped search helps or harms, what makes a good no-results page, and how to mine search logs for UX insight.
Where Baymard Institute concentrates on e-commerce, NN/g’s search research is broader (content sites, enterprise, web at large), making the two complementary empirical sources for Search UX.
Notable Search-UX Findings
- Pinball pattern — complex results pages push users into non-linear scanning
- Love-at-first-sight gaze pattern — how users fixate on the first compelling result
- Scoped search — useful but risky; stale scopes mislead users (see Search Scopes)
- No-results SERPs — guidelines for recovering a failed query (see Zero Results)
- Search-log analysis — using query logs as a UX research method (Search Observability)
- Good abandonment — not every query that ends without a click is a failure
Articles
- The Pinball Pattern - Complex Search-Results Pages Change Search Behavior — nonlinear SERP scanning
- Scoped Search - Dangerous but Sometimes Useful — sticky-scope failure mode
- Good Abandonment on Search Results Pages — no-click ≠ failure
- Search-Log Analysis - The Most Overlooked Opportunity in UX Research — query logs as UX research
Related
- Search UX Research — the category of independent search-UX research orgs
- Search UX — the design discipline NN/g’s findings feed
- Baymard Institute — the e-commerce-focused counterpart