Ultimate Reading List for Search UX Practitioners
Enthusiastic search technology and UX practitioners have no shortage of inspiring books to adorn their bedside tables. Countless books on information architecture, interaction design, user testing and design documentation could keep you occupied well into the next wave of occupational fads.
If you have read everything else of interest – and want to pump yourself up on enterprise search – look no further. We have compiled our ultimate reading list for search enthusiasts, a comprehensive collection of the most interesting books on search thinking and search doing written to date. Hopefully you’ll find something worth reading here aswell.
We would love to hear what you think of these book, and please feel free to share your own suggestions in the comments below. Happy reading!
Search Thinking
Lovely books on the softer, more fluffy side of enterprise search.
Everything Is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger – the human side of information, and why tagging is better than classification.
Ambient Findability by Peter Morville – search in a wider perspective, and possible futures.
The Search by John Battelle – the story of how Google revolutionized web search and Internet business.
Search Doing
Rock-solid and down-to-earth practical advice on search design and implementation.
Search Patterns by Peter Morville – the definitive guide to design patterns for search.
Search Users Interfaces by Marti A. Hearst – a textbook packed with useful examples of search user interface designs.
Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success by Greg Nudelman – the how-to on eCommerce search design and implementation, with a lot of helpful guidelines.
Search Analytics by Louis Rosenfeld – a thorough and comprehensive guide to working with your search logs.
Faceted Search by Daniel Tunkelang – a crash course in one of the most enigmatic challenges of enterprise search.
Exploratory Search: Beyond the Query-Response Paradigm by Ryen W. White & Resa A. Roth – the academic perspective on information seeking behavior and Human-Computer Information Retrieval (HCIR).
Update:
Martin White has published two additional books on enterprise search that you may want to check out:
- Successful Enterprise Search Management
- Making Search Work: Implementing web intranet and enterprise search
Dear Vegard
If you watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpBAg4Ndi9w you will see that Martin Hearst is in fact Marty Hearst, with Marty being a shortened version of Martine.
You may also be interested to know that I have written two books on search, which are listed at
http://www.intranetfocus.com/about/martin-white/publications
Regards
Martin
Hi Martin,
Actually it’s Marti A. Hearst, but thanks for the correction!
Initially I meant to include your book “Successful Enterprise Search Management” in the list, but somehow I lost the reference. Will make an update of it ASAP.
Thanks for letting us know!