You and I are different. It’s obvious, but has a profound impact on fulfilling the needs of disparate users. Not only do you and I have different accents, hairstyles, and musical tastes, but even our cognitive processes — the very building blocks of being human — are substantially different. I recently wrote about individual differences in expertise and cognitive style, but there is a third dimension: learning style. Understanding how people learn is fundamental to delivering desirable content, a prerequisite of any good user experience.

From 5 senses to 3 modalities

We experience the world through our senses. While we know from grade school that there are 5 senses, psychologists have distilled these into 3 “sensory modalities” relevant to learning: verbal, visual, and kinesthetic. Though everyone learns through all three modes, we each favor one over the others, resulting in three different styles of learning:

• Verbal learners are best at absorbing written and spoken information. Since most learning is either text-based (reading a book, searching online) or auditory (a classroom lecture or personal conversation), verbal learners have ready access to content in their preferred medium.
• Visual learners, on the other hand, digest information from charts, diagrams, timelines, maps, and other concrete images more easily than from the written or spoken word. In contrast to their verbal counterparts, visual learners are relatively underserved with appropriate content.
• Kinesthetic learners enjoy hands-on activities involving movement (think dancing, pottery, woodwork). While kinesthetic learning is minimally involved in desktop computing, it plays a much more significant role in gestural and mobile interfaces, a discussion best saved for another article.

Dual Coding Theory

While our sensory modes courier outside stimuli into our brains, their role is much more pervasive than simple conduits. Once we acquire new knowledge, our brains encode that information onto our long-term memory in the vernacular of our sensory modes. In other words, our brains use two different formats for text and images, just like a computer.

Dual Coding Theory

But because verbal and visual concepts are stored separately, translating a semantic idea into a visual concept is a taxing, though ubiquitous process. When someone tells you driving directions, for instance, you probably construct a simple visual map in your mind. If you’re putting together a bookshelf using Ikea’s pictogram instructions, on the other hand, your mind works to decode those images into verbal steps of what to do next.

A parody on the infamous Ikea instruction manual.

Dual Coding Theory, developed by Allan Paivio in the 1970s, unearthed an important discovery: people learn best when information is presented in two modalities at the same time. That is, providing a verbal and a visual explanation in parallel enables the mind to encode information in both modes as well as to build referential links (similar to hyperlinks on the web) between the two representations. Paivio’s research has profound implications upon designing websites that maximize learning.

Creating content for verbal and visual learners

Long-form articles are back in vogue. UXers love advocating calmer reading experiences while services like Instapaper and Readability help us compile and consume our own digital magazines. But as you read these words on your Kindle from the comfort of your favorite chair, millions of people around the world are frantically looking for information at this very instant, and they want it now! Learning styles and dual coding theory deliver a resounding message: pithy content is more important than ever before.

Use text and images

While we each have a preferred learning style, we all benefit when information is presented both textually and visually. A study by the University of California found a 30% rise in effective problem solving when verbal and visual instruction were given at the same time (compared with providing one followed by the other). An eyetracking study by Jakob Nielsen validated that users spend a significant amount of time looking at information-carrying images. For best results, invest in both textual and visual content.

Pottery barn eyetracking

A photograph can sometimes be more important than the text, such as in this product list from Pottery Barn studied by Jakob Nielsen.

Visualize complex information

Presenting aggregate data in visual form helps the user understand the information landscape more quickly and intuitively than could text. The UK Treasury, for instance, releases a yearly summary of government spending, presented to the public as data tables within a PDF. When The Guardian designed an infographic visualizing the proportion of one department’s spending to the others, it was so incisive that the Treasury themselves requested printed copies to hang within their office. Does your website have information that could be made more powerful by visualizing it?

Guardian Infographic

Use concrete language

Words can also be visual. Concrete language (“juicy watermelon”, for example) evokes a much stronger sensory response than does abstract language (like “agricultural produce”). A study by Sadoski et al asserts: “Concrete words, phrases, sentences, and texts have been found to be more imageable, comprehensible, memorable, and interesting than abstract language units.” So, there you have it: use concrete language.

Sagrada Familia

While these words on the door of the Sagrada Família are literally concrete, using vivid rather than abstract language makes for better writing.

Be concise

English teachers, editors, and experienced writers alike often give out a single piece of advice: be concise. Clearly expressed, succinct content increases comprehension and enhances usability. A study by Riding and Sadler-Smith found that together, a 40% reduction in word count, when combined with an increased use of visual illustrations, improved student’s test scores from 67% to 82% (out of 100). Take the time to make content concise.

Put it into practice: write a style guide

Now that you’ve learned a bit about how people learn, what are you going to do about it? Enter content strategy, the discipline of planning the purpose, message, and style of content. One tool from the content strategist’s toolbox is particularly useful in applying the implications of learning styles to your own content: the style guide.

A simple document casting a comprehensive vision of a website’s (or an entire organization’s) content, the style guide establishes a consistent point of reference for content creators. When writing or revising your style guide, consider these implications of learning styles:

• Is your audience more likely to be verbal or visual learners?
• Is there currently enough visual content on your website?
• Are there parts of your website that would be more useful if better data visualization were used?
• How should writers be expected to work with designers, illustrators, and photographers to pair text with communicative images?
• Is your website’s style of language concrete and sensory, or is it too abstract?
• Is your website content concise, or is there fluff that needs to disappear?

Conclusion

We learn through our verbal, visual, and kinesthetic senses, and our memories are encoded in these different formats. Each of us likely favors one style of learning over the others, but pithy, concrete text coupled with informative images is a potent content cocktail for people of all learning styles.
The author would like to thank Jonathan Kahn for his helpful input on this article.

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Sagrada Familia photo by joelrbrandt

The implications of Information Foraging Theory on designing user-centered websites have not gone unnoticed. Jakob Nielsen and Jared Spool, among others, have put forth considered recommendations on how to enhance information scent on the web. Most of their guidelines, however, tend to assume that the designer has direct control over the explicit words used in the interface. While this is certainly the case for browse-based websites dependent on site-wide navigation and hyperlinks, it breaks down for search interfaces where both content and navigation are completely dynamic.

While the principles for amplifying information scent in search-based interfaces are complimentary to those of browse-based models, they are yet distinct from them. Understanding how information scent applies to search first requires an understanding of human search behavior and the factors that affect it.

People are just like bears (only less fur)

Marcia Bates' berrypicking model

In her landmark 1989 paper, Marcia Bates outlined search as an evolutionary process. Users often begin with a general query, glean a few nuggets from the initial results, reformulate their query based on that new knowledge, and then repeat this process. Like a bear foraging for food in the forest, knowledge seekers tend to rapidly migrate from one patch of information to the next.

A Bloomberg terminal concept by IDEO

While this iterative behavior is true of virtually everyone using search, there are two key factors that distinguish some users from others: domain expertise and search expertise (though John Ferrara has identified several additional factors). Some websites, for example, may be able to assume that users are highly literate in a specific topic, while other websites may need to design for a range of expertise in a variety of subjects (the case for web search engines). In addition, users experienced at using search interfaces will be more capable of utilizing sophisticated search tools, but less experienced users will demand less complexity.

Though domain and search expertise separate some users from others, a given user may have different goals at different times. The two primary types of goals are recall and exploration. Recall involves a straightforward retrieval of a specific fact or document (for instance, “what it the population of Brazil?”), and can generally be accomplished in a short amount of time. Exploration, on the other hand, is a more subjective process. Choosing where to go on holiday, for example, is a complex question that may take hours or even days to decide.

Carrots and sticks: designing for information scent

Understanding the iterative nature of search and the contexts from which users operate is the foundation for knowing how to effectively harness information scent to improve the usability of search. Above all else, Information Foraging Theory has taught us that users need to feel as if they are always “getting warmer.” As a user searches, information scent must grow increasingly poignant, emanating a feeling of progress to the user. When information scent is strong, users are confident that they’re headed in the right direction. When it’s weak, users may be uncertain of what to next, or they may abandon their search altogether.

When information scent is strong, users are confident that they’re headed in the right direction. When it’s weak, users may be uncertain of what to next, or they may abandon their search altogether.

There are many practical methods for increasing information scent in search. Some of them bear resemblance to Nielsen and Spool’s original recommendations, but are deserving of further elaboration in the context of search interfaces. We will trace the user’s journey from the searchbox, to the list of search results, and end with query refinement using faceted navigation.

The searchbox

In order for a user to have a successful search experience, he must first locate the searchbox and successfully enter a query. These two obvious requirements lead us to our first two design recommendations.

The searchbox should look like a searchbox
Cute attempts to drastically re-style the searchbox usually end in failure. The universal language of the searchbox consists of a border, white background, and a corresponding button that says “search.” In addition to expecting the searchbox to look a certain way, users have also come to expect it in a particular location: the top right corner of the page. The further one deviates from this expected appearance and placement, the more one risks that users will not actually discover the searchbox.

Provide as-you-type query suggestions
Whether the subject is a particular Icelandic volcano or the president of Iran, users are often not sure exactly what to type in order to find what they’re looking for. A little help can go a long way in getting the user off to the right start. As-you-type query suggestions reduce spelling errors and, equally important, give users a sense of confidence that they have entered a dependable query.

Autocomplete at Globrix, eBay, and Last.fm

Search results

Assuming that the user found the searchbox and managed to enter a query, she will then be presented with a set of results matching that query. Consisting of at least a title and description, search results are typically dense with information. The challenge becomes separating the signal from the noise.

Indicate the number of results matching the query
The number of matching results has a significant impact on the user’s confidence in his query. If he sees that a large number of results have been returned, he can safely assume that his query is adequate, whereas only a handful of results may be an indicator that he may have misspelled a word or is simply searching for something that doesn’t exist.

John Ferrara on Titles

Use descriptive titles
In order for users to detect information scent in search results, the results must be digestible at a glance. Titles are usually the first recipients of the user’s attention, so it’s important that they accurately describe the content that they represent. Avoid using file names as titles, which are often cryptic and usually contain little information scent.

Highlight matching words
In addition to descriptive titles, hit highlighting is one of the most helpful cues on the search results page, making queried words immediately stand out to the user. The user can quickly evaluate the list of results by simply observing the greatest concentration of highlighted words on the page.

Make visited links discernible from unvisited links
A visual indicator of which pages have already been visited provides useful scent to the user. Whether she is trying to re-find a page she found yesterday, or trying to avoid duplicating her efforts, a visited link color is very helpful.

Yahoo's best first pattern

More detail for top results, less detail for the rest
One of Peter Pirolli‘s interesting discoveries is that users tend to prefer more verbose results in some circumstances (when there is no time constraint or when there are few results to choose from), and more concise descriptions at other times (under a deadline or when there are many results). How can these opposing cases be reconciled? An ideal compromise is the best first pattern, in which extensive metadata is presented for the top one to three results, while more concise views are provided for all of the subsequent results.

Avoid zero results
A search result page that has no results is a serious roadblock to users. It will either delay their journey, or cause them to give up completely. It’s important to do everything possible to avoid zero result pages from ever occurring. Two helpful tools are automatic spelling corrections and synonym dictionaries. If the user has obviously misspelled a word in the query that would yield zero results, it’s best to automatically correct the spelling for the user, being careful to notify the user of the modified query.

Faceted navigation

Frequency can be indicated both numerically and with horizontal bars

So the user entered a query and glanced over the first set of results. What now? If the user already found what he was looking for, then job done. But chances are he still has a long way to go. Faceted navigation is the best available tool for facilitating the evolutionary flow of search. It both helps the user understand the shape of the data, and gives him the ability to drill down to a very specific slice of the results.

Show the number of matching results for each filter
Showing result counts for filters helps users understand the overall composition of the results. They provide cues that feed into our decision-making process, influencing how we decide to further slice the data. In addition to providing a numeric count, subtle visual indicators such as horizontal bars can make the distribution of results even more immediately obvious to the user.

Use breadcrumbs to indicate the user’s query and applied filters
In addition to choosing where to go next, users need to know where they are currently and how they got there. Breadcrumbs provide this trail, and also enable users to quickly get back in the event of having taken a wrong turn. Each breadcrumb should be independently removable, while Greg Nudelman has outlined an even more forgiving breadcrumb that allows for the swapping of one filter for a related one.

An internal knowledge management application at British broadcaster ITV

Make metadata clickable
When filterable metadata is shown for a search result, that metadata should be clickable to allow for organic filtering of the results. For example, when searching a catalogue of books that presents the author alongside each result, clicking on the author’s name should cause that author to be added to the query as a filter.

Find ways to meaningfully visualize facets
Many facets lend themselves to a certain kind of presentation. Whether the facet consists of cities, prices, keywords or categories, there is probably a corresponding visualisation well suited for each, from a map to a slider to plain text. Effective visualisations are ones that make the data tangible and easy to comprehend.

2010 House of Representative Election from the New York Times, Google Stock Screener

A fairytale ending

Information scent plays a valuable role in making the digital landscape easier to traverse. By applying principles that amplify information scent, we can help facilitate a state of flow that enables users to engage in productive, frictionless, enjoyable search experiences.