Group 4. Aspects affecting search in the web site

A “search” on the web, more accurately defined with the term “query”, is defined as “a question or request for information” on the web (Thurow and Musica, 2009, p. 19). In large web sites, users may need to filter the information they need without browsing from page to page. Search on the web site should work in every language into which the web site has been localised:

If language choice is supported by a site, I recommend providing a link to the choice on every single page since users often go directly to pages from search services or bookmarks without passing through the home page (Nielsen, 1996b).

57 Nielsen (1996) suggests having the computer to perform multi-lingual searches automatically by under-standing the meaning of the search terms in several languages. Search options are checked directly on the web site.

4.1 Search in all linguistic versions: The searcher should be able to search for information in all the web pages (Andreu-Vall and Marcos, 2012, p. 259) in all linguistic versions. In our case, the search options should not be limited just to Italian web pages.

The search has been tested by entering the following search queries— 3 English words (“tickets”,

“opening hours” and “special offers”) and 3 Italian words (“biglietti”, “orario apertura” e “offerte speciali”)¹⁹ without selecting the language first. These words have been deliberately chosen by me, as I think these words can probably be among the most searched words by users looking for information on a museum web site. I expected the system to automatically recognise the language and show results in that language. I hereby provide a practical example to show how I carried out the test.

Item 13a: IT  home page tested: www.museoscienza.org/

Item 13b: EN  home page tested: www.museoscienza.org/english/

Item 13a:

When I enter search queries in Italian, I expect the search to show me results in Italian. When I enter search queries in English, I expect the search to show me results in English, even if the language of the home page is Italian, i.e. regardless of language selection. If results match my expectations, they can be considered suitable. Otherwise, they are considered unsuitable.

Figure 6 shows the results obtained when entering the Italian word “biglietti” in the searcher of the IT home page. Results are in Italian. The test is repeated with the words “orario apertura” and “offerte speciali”. Results are in Italian as well.

Figure 7 shows the results obtained when entering the English word “tickets” in the searcher of the IT home page. Results are in English. The test is repeated with the words “opening hours” and “special offers”. Results are in English as well.

As in both cases results comply with the guideline, they can be considered suitable.

19 In “orario apertura” the preposition “di” (orario di apertura) is omitted. Prepositions are often omitted when searching information in a web site.

58

Figure 6. Results from search test in the IT sample. Biglietti. Figure 7. Results from search test in the IT sample. Tickets.

Item 13b:

When I enter search queries in English, I expect the search to show me results in English. When I enter search queries in Italian, I expect the search to show me results in Italian, even if the language of the home page is English, i.e. regardless of language selection. If results match my expectations, they can be considered suitable. Otherwise, they are considered unsuitable.

Figure 8 shows the results obtained when entering the English word “tickets” in the searcher of the EN home page. Results are in English. The test is repeated with the words “opening hours” and “special offers”. Results are in English as well.

Figure 9 shows the results obtained when entering the Italian word “biglietti” in the searcher of the EN home page. Results are in Italian. The test is repeated with the words “orario apertura” and “offerte speciali”. Results are in Italian as well.

As in both cases results comply with the guideline, they can be considered suitable.

Figure 8. Results from search test in the EN sample. Tickets. Figure 9. Results from search test in the EN sample. Biglietti.

The non-compliance score for this category is 2 (medium error).

59 4.2 Advanced settings for search in a language: The user should be able to choose if he wants to perform a search in all linguistic versions or in a particular language. Moreover, he should be able to choose in which language he wants to search the information he needs. To check the guideline, I verified if there are advanced settings for search in a language. When such settings are not present in the web site, I selected English language, and then I wrote the above-mentioned words in the searcher, expecting the computer to display the information in English only.

If all of the information has been replicated in every language, then there is no need to search more than one language. In this case, the search interface should know of the user’s preferred language and only display hits in that language. Unfortunately, it is often not possible to translate all documents, so many sites require searches of several languages if the user needs complete coverage of the available information (Nielsen, 1996).

The non-compliance score for this category is 3 (major error).

4.3 Language of informative texts in results page: When users perform the task of searching content using the search button, they expect the computer to display results in the language they have chosen.

Further, if the search results lead to other informative texts or documents, these texts should be available in the language selected for the search (Andreu-Vall and Marcos, 2012, p. 259).

The object of the analysis is the language of informative documents given as search results. The afore-mentioned search queries have been entered in the searcher. Search results have been analysed, and no informative documents has been found. A further query has been added (map; mappa) to increase the chance of coming across informative documents. The non-compliance score for this category is 2 (me-dium error).