The Essentials of Great Search Design

Search User Experience

As an enterprise search consultant

Oslo,Norway

Working both public and private sector

I’ve learnt Onevery important thing

Search is aWicked Problem

Peter Morville, not me.

Enterprise Search is harder...

High AmbitionsVague GoalsTight BudgetsEven Tighter Deadlines

...than you would imagine

Weak InfrastructureLegacy SystemsFaulty MetadataScanned DocumentsConvoluted Security

To solve it takes more than

Clever Algorithms,Beautiful Code and

Lots of Data

It requires Dialog andCross-diciplinary Collaboration with

StakeholdersProduct OwnersProject ManagersSales/marketingHuman Resources

UsersCustomersEmployees

UsersCustomersEmployees

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TechiesSysadminsProgrammersWeb designers

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To create something truly

EfficientUsableDesirable

You need a process to explore requirements ahead of iterative development.

Ideation Implementation

Concept Development

Technology Design

Interaction Design

Business Goals

User Needs

Technological Capabilities

Product Backlog

Inspiration

We call it

Sprint 0

Stakeholder Interview

User Interviews

Personas & User Stories

Technology Assessments

Content Inventory

Information Modelling

Process Modelling

Concept Sketching

System Architecture

Integration Testing

Concept Review

WireframingIndexing

Performance Testing

Hardware & System

Specification

User Testing

Revising Wireframes UI Prototype

Prioritizing Product Backlog

Final Report & Presentation

All in just4 weeks!

BusinessValue

TechnologicalCapabilities

UserNeeds

Interaction Designer

InformationArchitect

SystemsArchitect

ProcessInnovation

EmotionalInnovation

FunctionalInnovation

It’s not anego trip...

Stakeholders

TechiesUsers

1Include Everybodyin the design process!

Because we all see things a bit differently

What kindof designerare you?

2Seek to uniteBusiness Goals

User Needs andTechnological Possibilities

“If I had asked people whatthey wanted, they would havesaid faster horses.”

- Henry Ford

Because innovation happenswhere diciplines intersect.

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3Find the Problemsthat you need to solve later!

Because a weak foundationmay topple your masterpiece.

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Okay...Let’s dive inn!

Seek inspiration

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Learn from Stakeholders what makes them

SuccessfulI Won!

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Ask questions like:How do you know it's a problem?Who are most effected by the problem?How would you measure progress?What would show that you're successful?When do you need results?

Learn from Users what makes them

Productive

Ask questions like:How is it like where you work?What tasks do you perform?When do you typically seek information?What is relevant information to you?Who recieves the information you find?

Learn from Techies what makes them

Reassured

Ask questions like:Who uses the system and for what?What kind of documents does it contain?What’s the projected growth in data size?How are other systems integrated?How is access control managed?

Document the basisfor your design decisions.

Document user needs as

Personas and User Stories

Age 20 yearsRole Account managerBackground High schoolComputer Experience

Much time online, Facebook, YouTube

“I want an automatic search on the customer when a phone call comes in, so that all customer information in the CRM system automatically pops up on my screen.”

To help stakeholders make priorities.

Work on these

features NOW

Work on these

features LATER

Work on these

features later.

MAYBE

Ignore these

features, possibly forever.

HIGHTechnicalFeasibility

LOWTechnicalFeasibility

HIGHBenefit to Personas

LOWBenefit to Personas

Organize entities, categories and facetsin Information Models

To help users make sense of information

Sketch out concepts that integratePersonas,User StoriesandInformationModels.

Supported bySearch Modes Behaviors Design PatternsKnown-item Narrow Auto-CompleteExploration Pearl Growing Best BetResearch Pogostick Guided NavigationRe-finding Agonizing Universal Search

Scanning PersonalizationPivot

Prototype and test the interaction design to discover potential usability issues.

Prototype and test the technical design to discover potential bottle-necks and pitfalls.

Fileserver loadFaulty security mechanismsDependencies with other systems

Let’s go over that Again...

1Include Everybodyin the design process!

2Seek to uniteBusiness Goals

User Needs andTechnological Possibilities

3Find the Problemsthat you need to solve later!

Ask, try, learn, repeat...

Ideation Implementation

Concept Development

Technology Design

Interaction Design

Business Goals

User Needs

Technological Capabilities

Product Backlog

Inspiration

We discover the best solutions

Together

Presentation by:

Vegard SandvoldDesigner / Information Architect

http://twitter.com/vsandvold http://thingsontop.com