Resumen
In this article, authors discuss sorting out a user interface framework for text searching when searches result in a mountain of irrelevant documents. They infer that individual user interfaces for text searching are often confusing and as a group seriously inconsistent. The ideal user interface is comprehensible, predictable and controllable, but many current text-search interfaces especially on the World Wide Web involve unnecessarily complex and obscure features. The result is confusion for advanced users as well as for beginners, scientists, and students. Even when a user interface's design is improved, inconsistencies can cause mistaken assumptions and increase the likelihood of failure to find relevant documents as users move from one search system to another. They propose a four-phase framework for user-interface design that provides common structure and terminology for searching while preserving the distinct features of individual collections of documents and search mechanisms. The future of the Web as a universal tool may depend on interface developers' ability to reduce frustration and confusion for the users while enabling them to reliably find what they need.