Rob Metzgar's Portfolio



Unified search project
The unified search project was the partnership between Google and AOL Time Warner integrating Google's backend search algorithm into the main Time Warner search results sets. This meant that Netscape.com, CNN.com, Time.com all had to be re-designed in order to showcase Google's strengths. I had to work with the different company's outside of AOL to give them the first pass at what AOL search result set would look like. We had to take many things into consideration such as location of Sponsored links which generated large amounts of money for the company, and clean info-nuggets " search result sets" that was easy for the user to view when looking for data. I believe we accomplished a cleaner look and feel than Google's own approach on their site.
	Wireframes such as this one were created to get an idea of the layout we wanted to go with. Wireframes incorporated "ad" units, branding, navigation and all other product requirements that were needed before we get to a more polished design.



	This design in early 2003 incorporated the 100k a week sponsored links at the top of the page, and also a clear distinction of elements that were previously a problem. Users had trouble viewing important functions such as the search field, clear distinctions between what were "ad's" and what were relevant results. The new design focused on a easy to read hierarchy. 1. Brand 2. Search Box 3. Sponsored Links 4. Matching results. It was very easy to read in that order when the user initiated a search.



	The time.com search result set was a bit more artistic. I worked closely with visual designers to create a more stylized result set with curved corners and picture thumb- nails in the sponsored links area. We also had various branding requirements to keep our users in our network of sites that we owned. Notice the CNN branding that was placed in a lip to recirculate our users to other properties. All search result sets were very similar but had slight tweaks for different company's within Time Warner.



		If you notice, the first three things the user will sees on the page are all located in one central area. This makes it easier for the user to see quickly what they are searching for right after typing in a search query.




The "info-nugget" redesign for Froogle.com
The assignment here was to re-design the information result which we call the "info-nugget" to be easier to use and to be more clear to the users. Basically information hierarchy redesign. As you notice, the current set was very "blue" and link heavy which made the page look very busy. There also was no clear focus on how much the price of the item was, and no clear way on how to buy the item.

Before



After


The new result set used basically the same information but simplified the overall design by using a different color scheme for the secondary links in purple, keeping the primary link blue and then a hot link to buy stand out with orange. I also repositioned the price directly underneath the product for easy eye scanning down the page. With this re-design, the page was much lighter, and the focal points stood out which decreased the amount of time it would take a user to click through to buy the product.


2007 - Rob Metzgar Design - All work launched and usable