Search vs. navigate: How people behave on websites – do they search or do they navigate?

Fra Cludo.com

https://www.cludo.com/blog/search-vs-navigate-people-behave-websites-search-navigate/

En opsummering i artiklen fortæller om søgemønstre versus navigation (eller browsing)

“During the research based on findings I have made on the internet (see the source list) I discovered that:

  • People who use search box know specifically what they are looking for, like e.g. product name. People who navigate explore more related content but it does not mean that their conversion rate is higher. Users who use the search are often in the late-stage of buying mode, information gathering phase is completed and they have made decision which product to buy.
  • Search lets users control their own actions and just find things they are looking for; navigation attempts to guide users where they should click and decides on their behalf which content is more important than other.
  • Women navigate, men search (men are “hunters” and women are “browsers” online) 2
  • People very often use only search functionality on their mobiles. Complex navigation seldom works well on mobile devices and people just don’t use it. Instead they prefer to quickly insert the search word and go directly to the result page.
  • Search is the users’ escape when they are stuck in navigation – when they can’t find a reasonable place to go next, they often turn to the site’s search function.”