the Hammer Project

Edit: Metahint is not active any more :(

As web matures, conventions emerge. We generally accept that we can find a main navigation set of links up the top of a page. Generally, a logo click should return one to the home page and since using Google, we more or less expect that when we type text into a “search” field, we’ll find what we’re looking for if it’s there.

So.. if we’re not Google, how should search work? What result do you expect from a search input? And now that live search is becoming much more mainstream, how should we expect that to behave?

The reason I ask is because this is what us designers/developers/UX people should care about - what the user expects to happen. If we are to get value from a convention (something that is widely understood to work a certain way) then we need to make sure it’s the correct [expected] implementation.

I’ve just started trialling a cool new search tool for blogs/sites/etc called Metahint - you can test it out to search my blog. But one thing I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t seem to behave the way I expect. I think this is important because if you want something that is useful and usable, then users need to be able to figure out how to use it pretty well instantly.

I think basic search, whether “live” or not should include these three primary functions:

• Sub-string matching - None of this “beginning of word” business. I need to be able to start typing part of a persons name for example, starting at the front, back or middle (in the event I don’t know how to spell it properly) and get a match.
• Multi-word matching - Just like Google infers a logical-and (not logical-or) when a space ” ” is inserted between words. This is expected now, so all search should do it.
• Relevance - or at least some form of it. Now I won’t try to define explicitly what this means but it’s pretty clear we need ordered results in some form. Whether it’s frequency of occurrence; weighting based on order of search input; or more slick Google’ly chops - I don’t want 10 results back and the one I need at the bottom of the list.

Tell me what you think. How do you expect search to work? What are great examples of simple, yet well implemented search features?

Hammer was the only thing I could think of when I was trying to find a parallel to what I’m trying to do. A hammer is simple right? Everyone knows how to use one, and not because they know how, but because it’s obvious. Or rather, it’s intuitive. There’s no manual for a hammer. It explains itself.

Hammer is what I want for software, in particular the software that’s typically boring and dull. Apply the hammer transform- simple, intuitive, useful. Throw in a bit of “Dood! I might actually stay awake while I’m using this” and you’ve got something that people actually like.

The Hammer Project is my container for products and solutions that innovate what’s dead about software. Good and clean design will be primary goals. Things like standards based web design, simplicity, low-cost-of-entry and great customer service are of core value to me.

Hang out here for my tech thoughts, business opinions and news about what the Hammer Project will bring to the web.