Book Search is the massive undertaking to let people search the world of information contained in books. This project has never been short on challenges of every kind, including the user experience.
As the UX designer on the team, my challenge was to bring a whole new experience to searching, finding, browsing, and engaging with digitized books. In addition to consumers, we had an industry of publishers that needed means to provide book materials in a fast, efficient way.
During this time, we analyzed user behavior, designed and tested a unique book viewer, optimized the search flow, and completed an entire redesign of the publisher application.
The reality is that only a very small portion of book content is actually available online through search snippets or limited previews. Creating a consistent experience that protects authors' work and still provides value to users was a daunting task.
On the technology side, AJAX and advanced techniques were also just coming into their own. This meant exploring and testing complex new interaction patterns rapidly.
Today, Book Search provides a strong experience for the two key user patterns, searching for books and browsing content.
