In the course of this sprint, I'll be tackling the following questions.

Summarized responses are highlighted in bold.

Is this a problem for our users; or a created solution to a non existing problem

The lack of a search component greatly affects the usability of our apps, however not all users are affected to the same degree

What are the known use cases?

Global search, administration, on-boarding, reports & insights, help and support, account lookup, inline search (search within a data table or flow)

What do our stakeholders think?

Full approval with reservations from our content partners

What problems do we need to overcome?

Resources for content tagging, agreement on features

Does our team align on the objective? Yes Are we a go/no-go?

We are a go. Next, brainstorm solutions in the second sprint

Problem statement

Our customers cannot search within any of our apps.

Internal research

I reached out to a research team here at the bank to see if they had conducted prior research on search. These are the key takeaways

Not all users or applications are impacted to the same degree
Administration, on-boarding and customer support: 57% of these users have expressed frustration when they are unable to locate specific information, products, or resources quickly
Frustration for task-oriented users: Users who visit the site with a specific task in mind have expressed disappointment when they can't efficiently complete their task without a search function

Load more internal research

Limited accessibility: Users who rely on keyboard navigation or screen readers have found it time consuming to explore a application thoroughly without a search function
Comparison to competitors: Users have compared our applications to our competitors that offer search functionality, noting that those websites provide a more convenient experience
Perceived lack of quality: Some users have associated the absence of a search feature with a lack of effort or investment in improving the user experience
Negative perception: Lack of search functionality might be seen as outdated or less user-friendly, potentially contributing to an overall negative perception of the bank
The recommendation is for each application team to conduct their own user research

What are the known use cases for search?

Global search
Administration — search for a user (post login)
On-boarding
Reports & Insights — business intelligence and data visualization
Help and support
Account lookup
Inline search; Search inside a data table

Stakeholder interviews — summary

Journey team design manager

Offer the user two distinct pathways
- Go directly to a result
- Go to a landing page, then filter and sort or create a new search

Journey team designer

Pre search filtering — can we offer this functionality because I think it would be useful for app customers?

Technology leader

Foundations — We have put the functionality in place and are ready to do this.

Strategy/Content

Tagging content — Will each journey team be in charge of this?

Accessibility

Screen readers — we need to make sure we continue to support screen readers and tag content appropriately.

Product

Customer Support: Applications offering customer support or helpdesk services can integrate search to enable users to quickly find relevant articles, FAQs, or troubleshooting guides.

stakeholder interview comments

Revision of the problem statement

Our customers need to quickly and confidently search for content in order to…

Be more productive
Reduce friction
Increase engagement
Decrease support calls
Onboard faster

Partner recommendations

General

Minimum viable product (MVP): Start with a light implementation (administration/search for a user), then add increased functionality over time (global search)
Global search: Suggest we implement a Google pattern because our customers are already familiar with that functionality
Ability for the user to go to a direct search result or landing page
Pioneer will develop the component and recommended pattern
Search should be able to access data from other databases

Content

Users should be able to search across all content types
Define search categories
Optimize content for keywords
Ensure content is properly structured using standard HTML tags to mark up headings, paragraphs, lists, and other content elements

Load more internal research

Descriptive URLs that include keywords related to the page's content
Remove duplicate content
Add alt text to images to provide a text description of the image
Add descriptive meta information; title tags and meta descriptions to each page

Before adding search to your app, each team should

Conduct user research: Gain insights into how users are searching on your app and identify any issues that need to be addressed
Iteration and Analysis: After the study, analyze the collected data to identify patterns and trends. Look for areas of improvement, such as confusing UI elements, misleading search results, or slow performance
Validation and Iteration: If possible, implement the recommended changes and conduct follow-up usability testing to validate the improvements. This iterative process helps ensure that the changes have a positive impact on the user experience
Continuous Monitoring: Regularly monitor and gather user feedback even after implementing improvements. This ongoing process helps maintain the quality of the search functionality and address any emerging issues

Open questions

Will each team will maintain their own database?
Will the scope of search be limited to specific pages, sections of the site, or will it include all content?
Integration with existing systems: Should app teams be able to access data from other databases?
Will there be a impact on website speed or the need for additional server resources?

During this sprint

Now our team is aligned on a set of recommendations I will answer the following questions

What are search best practices?
How have our competitors solved this problem?

Then I will brainstorm a series of solutions for search.

Search best practice

Use search suggestions (autocomplete)
Differentiate between Typed Query Text and Suggested Term
The majority of people will do a simple search with one or two search terms
The user should be able to go directly to a chosen result or a landing page where they can filter the search or conduct a new one
When the user chooses to narrow the search (scope or filter) state the scope on the results page
Advanced (scoped) search can lead a user into trouble as they invariability use it wrong
If advanced search is offered set default scope to all
Global search — use a full search box in header

Load more recommendations

Include Scope in Search Suggestions
Consider but hide in Mobile: Category pages, Product-detail pages, Resources/articles
Pick an appropriate term, which will show users good results, rather than making up a query which might have no results or poor results
Avoid typos, because users don’t need to type out the entire query themselves

Search definitions

Competitive landscape

I carried out a competitive and comparative analysis to identify which search features are being commonly utilized.

I concluded

Advanced search (initial search with filtering options) is seldom used. This observation seems to support the notion that advanced search features often leads users into complications.
It's advisable to provide users with a straightforward search option that directs them to a landing page where they can further refine their search through filtering.

Search features, Competitive landscape

Case Study

Initiate a discovery process to evaluate the need for a search component, followed by an exploration of potential solutions.

Situation

Task

Action/design process

Result

Sprint 1: Discovery

10 day deliverable