Designing Search (part 5): Results pages by Tony Russell-Rose.
From the post:
In the previous post, we looked at the ways in which a response to an information need can be articulated, focusing on the various forms that individual search results can take. Each separate result represents a match for our query, and as such, has the potential to fulfil our information needs. But as we saw earlier, information seeking is a dynamic, iterative activity, for which there is often no single right answer.
A more informed approach therefore is to consider search results not as competing alternatives, but as an aggregate response to an information need. In this context, the value lies not so much with the individual results but on the properties and possibilities that emerge when we consider them in their collective form. In this section we examine the most universal form of aggregation: the search results page.
As usual, Tony illustrates each of his principles with examples drawn from actual webpages. Makes a very nice checklist to use when constructing a results page. Concludes with references and links to all the prior posts in this series.
Unless you are a UI expert, defaulting to following Tony’s advice is not a bad plan. May not be anyway.