The Microsoft team behind Bing Image search focuses on three ways to provide the best experience to you. First, you must see high quality and relevant images. Second, Bing Image search should provide related suggestions and collections.
Lastly, provide actions that let you refine your search result by options such as source or size, and features such as image match which let you provide an image which Bing will use to provide identical or similar sets. There should also be a one-click button to pin images to Pinterest.
In pursuit of this aim Microsoft has introduced a new UX design. At the heart of it is a flexible and dynamic interface.
The interface is now responsive and fits desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile screens wonderfully. When clicking on an image, it will take up the width of your screen, with the suggestions displayed dynamically depending on your screen size.
It is also touch optimized. On tablets, you can easily swipe through carousels, which is a row of suggestions or collections, in intervals across the page added by the team. The reason behind this is simple — if you are scrolling down a page without clicking images, you may not be seeing the exact images you are looking for.
The images also have a higher fidelity and are altered less. Additionally, there are little tweaks aimed at making the images become the focus of the page. The header of suggestions under the search bar slides to the right of it as you scroll down so you always have suggestions, but neither does it distract. The header also includes vertical dots to let you know where you are in the page.
The hover experience has also been improved. For many images, there is also a link with a search icon that will search Bing Images for that image.
That is the gist of the update. It is rolling out to everyone now, but if you don’t have it you can read more about it here. Personally, I really like what I have experienced so far. I am still awaiting a Microsoft alternative for the Chrome/Firefox feature which lets your right click an image on a webpage, and search for it. Hopefully IE 12 will bring in more integration.
Further reading: Bing, Bing Images, Microsoft
