Search user experience has come a long way from just a simple text input field. Faceted search interfaces have become standard on most e-commerce websites and search results help guide users to related and featured content. But how and why have search interfaces evolved so much in recent years?

We are delighted to welcome Tony Russell-Rose, from Endeca Technologies, to talk about how search interfaces can support users in a process of exploration and discovery.

Date: Monday 11 April 2011, Time: 18.30 for 18.45 to 20.00

Venue: Microsoft Research, Cambridge ( Map & address - note that Cambridge is just 45 minutes from Kings Cross but you will need to get a taxi to get to Microsoft Research, or pack a Brompton).

Registration: The event is FREE and you do not need to be a UK UPA member to attend.  

Abstract

The landscape of the search industry is undergoing fundamental change. In particular, there is a growing realisation that the true value of search is best realised by embedding it in a wider discovery context, so that in addition to facilitating basic lookup tasks such as known-item search and fact retrieval, support is also provided for more complex exploratory tasks such as comparison, aggregation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and so on. Clearly, for these sorts of activity a much richer kind of interaction or dialogue between system and end user is required. This talk examines what forms this interactivity might take and discusses a number of principles and approaches for designing effective search and discovery experiences.

Biography

Tony  is currently Manager of User Experience at Endeca Technologies, a company specialising in innovative solutions for information search and discovery. Before joining Endeca Tony was founder and director of UXLabs, a user experience consultancy specialising in technology innovation and applied R&D. Prior to this Tony was technical lead at Reuters, specialising in advanced user interfaces for information access and search. And before Reuters he was R&D group manager at Canon Research Centre Europe, where he led a team developing next generation information access products and services.

Tony's academic qualifications include a PhD in human-computer interaction, an MSc in cognitive psychology and a first degree in engineering, majoring in human factors. Tony also holds the position of Honorary Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Interactive Systems Research, City University, London.

Tony is currently vice-chair of the BCS Information Retrieval group and chair of the IEHF Human-Computer Interaction group.

Follow Tony on Twitter.