his is an excellent question! Thanks Alla!
I echo Andy's comments about familiarity with the list model. That
said, I think the optimal presentation is dependent on what your
audience needs to obtain from the results to take action, and also
the nature of the information you're presenting. I work in the real
estate industry and we're in the midst of a redevelopment ourselves.
In usability testing we were looked at three distinct models of
search results: list view, mapped results (we're in real estate,
remember) and then an image view. (The image view wasn't as large or
slick as searchme.com, but you get the picture.)
In-house we believed the map view would be the most relevant and
provide the most benefit. In testing though, we were very surprised
to learn the map was least favored, while the list and image view
were both heavily used and preferred. The strong propensity toward
the visual image presentation truly surprised me, since the property
seekers were wholly focused on the image rather than also taking
other key criteria such as location, price, etc. into account.
As a side note, last week at UPA Patrick Hoffman touched on this
topic in his "Beyond Web2.0 skins and mashups...." presentation,
thought it was geared toward younger users. It was quite informative
and he discussed the greater ease to scan or flip through visual
images compared to the mental processing of scanning list of text. I
did a horrific job of describing his point, but if you are
interested, I recommend searching for more info.
Again, excellent topic!
Erin
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