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Search doesn't compete with navigation

Within the industry, there is often perceived competition between search and navigation. Do we really need conventional site structures and navigation, or can we replace all that with powerful search?

It has also been argued that search will be the interface. While this statement can be hard to pin down, it talks about making search into the primary interface, via search-based dynamic navigation and the like.

The reality of course is that both search and navigation are needed. I would go one step further to say that you can't have effective search without a good underlying information architecture.

Let's make this really clear with a picture. Imagine our intranet homepage looked like Google:

This is great for experienced, frequent staff. Looking for a leave form? Type in "leave". Looking for the sales figures reporting application? Type in "sales figures reporting".

This is not so easy for new-starters at the organisation:

• What terms do I enter into the search engine?
• What's on the intranet?
• Are there other systems I should be looking on?
• How does the organisation work?
• What are the various functions and business units?
• What terminology is used within the organisation?

Fundamentally, search is great for known item searching, but hopeless at unknown item searching. If you don't know what you are looking for, you don't know what terms to type into search.

While this is a very contrived example, it demonstrates that information architecture and navigation play an integral role on an intranet:

• A good IA is required to deliver effective search results, for without any structure search becomes "garbage in, garbage out".
• Navigation helps people to search for information when they don't know the exact name or the terms to enter into the search engine.
• Navigation exposes what is actually on the intranet (and what isn't).

So the quick summary: you need both search and navigation. They both need to be effective. So let's bury the hatchet, and get on the with the job of making them work.

Posted by jamesr on February 18, 2007 09:33 AM
Categories: Information architecture, Intranets, Search tools