Learn the Basics and Benefits of Search Analytics
Merit Network is pleased to present "Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience", a one-day seminar featuring information architecture pioneer Louis Rosenfeld, on Wednesday, March 31, 2010, in Ann Arbor.If your web site has a search engine, you're sitting on an often under-utilized pot of gold: search query data that describes what your customers really want from your site - in their own words. Site search analytics helps you understand and benefit from that data, enabling you to better diagnose and solve a multitude of user experience problems. The result: better content, better navigation, better search, better interface design and a better user experience.See below for registration information.
"Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience" is the second of a two-seminar series taught by by Lou Rosenfeld. The first seminar, "Enterprise Information Architecture," will be presented on Tuesday, March 30, 2010. You can attend both seminars for a special price. Special discounts are also available to organizations that send three or more attendees. See the bottom of this page for all pricing and registration details.
Why Attend?
With a better understanding of site search analytics, spending even an hour a week analyzing your search queries can fine-tune and improve your web site and expose new opportunities for improving your online strategy. This seminar will combine lecture, discussion, and extensive hands-on exercises to cover the basics of site search analytics. You'll learn to:- Understand search logs and relevant analytics reports
- Ask the right questions of your query data
- Identify where your site's search and navigation are failing, and learn how to fix them
- Tune your content to your audience's needs and plug your site's content gaps
- Enhance your site's navigation through improved metadata
- Design better interfaces for entering queries and for presenting search results
- Improve your search engine's configuration
- Reinvigorate your user experience methodology by incorporating a method that's truly quantitative, and which helps improve your qualitative methods
Lou illustrates just one of many applications of site search anaylitics covered in this seminar in his article,"Beyond Goals: Site Search Analytics from the Bottom Up," which appears in the Sept. 22 issue of A List Apart Magazine.
Who Should Attend?
Web designers, information architects, interaction designers, usability specialists and content authors searching for the best way to diagnose, prioritize and address problems with their web sites.- Web designers and user experience designers will learn to integrate a data-driven user research tool into their broader design methodologies.
- If you're a web analytic professional, you'll appreciate a seminar that allows you to apply search analytics beyond traditional transaction conversion to improve the performance of your web site.
- Managers in particular will benefit from being able to use real behavioral data to better understand their customers' needs - along the way, it's likely they'll unearth new opportunities to enhance their organizations' online strategies.
Seminar Outline
The day will begin with continental breakfast at 8 a.m. with the agenda beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding by 5 p.m. The seminar will be followed by a happy hour to allow participants to network with one another and follow up with Lou. Key topics include:- What is Site Search Analytics (SSA)?
- The Point of SSA: the value of data-driven analysis for designers
- SSA Live Demonstration
- Technical Stuff: the nuts and bolts of SSA
- The Point of SSA: the value of data-driven analysis for designers
- Exercise/Discussion: Pattern Analysis
- Improving Navigation and Metadata
- Exercise/Discussion: Failure Analysis
- Improving Content
- Exercise/Discussion: Session Analysis
- Improving Search
- SSA and UX methodology
- Advanced Topics/Discussion
Seminar Outline with more detail and further explanation.Note: "Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience" will not cover the following topics:
- The technical aspects of analytics tools (such as how to install one on your server)
- Search engine optimization; that's about helping people find their way to your site, while site search analytics is about helping them find information within your site
Location and Times
"Site Search Analytics" will be held at the Michigan Information Technology Center, 1000 Oakbrook Drive, Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The agenda will begin with breakfast at 8:00 a.m., with presentations from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The day will conclude with a cocktail hour from 5:00-6:30 p.m. Registration includes continental breakfast, lunch, beverages, snacks and post-seminar happy hour. Wireless Internet service is available in the seminar room.Discounts for Multiple Attendees
Lou Rosenfeld's seminars are an excellent opportunity for team-building among professionals who work together. We are pleased to offer a discount of 20% for organizations that send three or more staff. To arrange for the discount, please send email to .Registration
You may register to attend either seminar, or register for both and save.Register to attend "Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience"
Merit Member $695 
Non-Member $795 Student $495*
Register to attend both "Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience" and "Enterprise Information Architecture"
Merit Member $1195 Non-Member $1395 Student $695*
Registration may be canceled up to 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday, March 5, 2010 minus a processing fee of $35. Cancellations are not accepted after March 5, 2010; substitutions are allowed if necessary. Payment may be made by credit card, check, or purchase order. For more information, please contact us at
*Eligible students are those who are enrolled in coursework and pursuing a baccalaureate or graduate degree at the time of the seminar. To register at the discounted rate, students must verify their enrollment status by faxing or sending a copy of their class schedule to: 734-527-5790.
More Merit Events.
Improving Your Web Site with Information Architecture
Merit Network is pleased to invite you to a lunch-hour teleconference with information architecture expert Lou Rosenfeld on Thursday, February 18 beginning at 12:15 p.m. Get more details.Instructor Spotlight
Lou Rosenfeld is an independent information architect and founder and publisher of Rosenfeld Media, which focuses on user experience books. He helped establish the fields of information architecture and user experience and co-authored Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, considered the leading text in the field. He has consulted for organizations including Accenture, AT&T, Caterpillar, Ford, and Microsoft. Lou began his career as an instructor at the University of Michigan School of Information.Website | Twitter | Bio | CV
Slideshare Presentations
Seminar Testimonials
"...your workshop helped us use our search engine as a better resource. Before we were looking at our monthly logs and saying things like 'isn't that interesting.' Today, we are adding some custom results for specific searches, and we are thinking about changing the layout of our results page to improve our sites usability."- Greg George, Information Architect, Georgia State University
"The workshop helped me greatly by raising my awareness of the practice and the value of measuring what your visitors are looking for."
-Brent Hardinge, Web Designer