Search results are typically presented in a vertical list which includes relevant items or search hits. The collection of these items is called a document surrogate.

University of Rochester

Presentation of search results is an important part of search interfaces. Empirical research has provided support for several common ways of presenting search results.

Presentation of Search Results

Hearst, M. A. (2009). Search user interfaces. Cambridge University Press. [https://searchuserinterfaces.com/book/]

Search User Interfaces

Document Surrogate

KWIC extractions or query oriented summaries refer to the presentation of summarized search results that account for searchers' query terms. Summaries include texts that contain query terms from the retrieved documents. Searchers' queries can typically be resolved by viewing query oriented summaries alone. 

Keyword-in-context (KWIC) or Query Oriented Summaries

Highlighting query terms refers to changing the display of query texts to make them more noticeable (e.g., bolding, adding colored backgrounds to query terms). Highlighting can appear in both search result listings and the retrieved documents. If the texts are lengthy, one way to highlight query terms is to use the scrollbar on the web page to show the location of the highlighted terms. Another way is to display an overview of the location of the highlighted terms.

Highlighting Query Terms

Empirical research suggested that specific features besides standard data about retrieved documents can be useful for search result listings 

Additional Features of Results Listings

Several empirical studies suggested that search results ordering has important effects on users' experiences. Users typically expect the most relevant answers to be on top of retrieved results, and users are less likely to click on results when this expectation is violated.

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