In addition to reducing the number of hits returned, by increasing search precision, it may also be sensible to investigate mechanisms for improving the way records are displayed. However, end-users may still not look though many pages of results even when they are presented in small chunks. Ranking mechanisms are not new, but usually rely on the frequency with which search terms are found in the retrieved records. This is often not very effective. The metadata used for the ranking may be available in the gateway records, extracted from the resources themselves, or obtained from a third-party.
Most subject gateways provide a browsing interface to their data in addition to a search interface.
Many of the issues raised above apply equally to the browse interface. For example, as the number of records in the database grows the lists of records presented in the browse interface is likely to become too long to be shown on a single Web page. As the database size increases, the number of records per section will also increase unless the specificity of the classification scheme is improved. Therefore, there are design decisions that need to be taken about the depth and complexity of the classification scheme used. This needs to be balanced against possible navigation problems caused by an overly complex hierarchy, which need to be taken into account in the interface design.