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Configuring Enterprise Search for Success

This guide by Marianne Sweeny, a Senior Search Strategist, highlights the importance of user experience in enterprise search configuration. It covers challenges users face, search behavior, roadmap for success, IA design, user engagement strategies, metadata usage, refining with user feedback, and key takeaways.

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Configuring Enterprise Search for Success

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  1. Configuring Enterprise Search for Success Marianne Sweeny SR Search Strategist marianne@portent.com

  2. Marianne Sweeny@portentmarianne@portent.com

  3. agenda • Users • Search Experience • Engineers vs. People • Roadmap • Define: problem space, scope • Evaluate: and describe • Users • Artifacts • Design: search functionality • Execute • Power users • Success measures • Refine: Experience Learning Model

  4. A Frustrating Experience

  5. Spoiled by Web Search • Searchers do not know “how to search” 56% constructed poor queries Proficiency with the machine does not translate into proficiency with the software

  6. Lack Orientation Capability • Searchers get lost in the data 33% had difficulty navigating/orienting search results 28% had difficulty maintaining orientation on a website

  7. Do Not Look with Care • Loss of capacity for discernment 36% did not go beyond the first 3 search results (not pages…results on page 1) 91% did not go beyond the first page of search results 55% selected irrelevant results 1 or more times

  8. Web Search is not Enterprise Search

  9. Engineers Think that • User behavior is predictable • User behavior is consistent • Process can be automated • Transmission of the output (data) is the end result

  10. In the Real World • User behavior is… • Interpretive • Meaning is constructed in relation to unique situation • User behavior changes due to changing context • Information is processed before and after the system

  11. Engineering thinking is • Linear • Object-oriented • Mechanistic passive users • Atomistic view of data (discrete items) • Contained situationality

  12. Outside of star trek • In the real world, user thinking is… • Chaotic • Subjective • Constructivist active user • Holistic view that encompasses additional elements for context • Internal cognition • Trans-situationality

  13. Roadmap

  14. Enterprise Search Configuration Roadmap Define

  15. Define the Scope Find out: What to crawl? Find out: Where the content lives? Find out: how to index Map internal and external resources Discover the sacred cows

  16. Do not fear users • Find out what they pain points are • Survey • Interviews • Find out how they compensate • Find and designate Power Users

  17. Don’t Boil the Ocean

  18. Enterprise Search Configuration Roadmap Design

  19. IA & Site structure • Compensate for lack of link relevance • Create Meaningful URLs

  20. Design AN ENGAGING User Experience Wean users from Google Web search expectations Encourage and enable better query construction

  21. Give the User Some Control • Users look to search engines for guidance. We can provide similar guidance with user controls

  22. Content Relational Content Modeling is … Guided ToursProduced Views Task List Drop Down Related Links Best Bets

  23. Content: Inventory

  24. Content: Audit

  25. Page Title • Appears in bar above browser window • Bookmark Text • Link text in search results • Term placement here = strong indicator of relevance • Must map to the content on page Only 69 characters including spaces displayed Make them count

  26. Metadata Description Meta-description appears as blurb text with search result link 150 characters including spaces Rest is cut off with … Use for all types of content Page code annotation of rich media components MS Office documents & PDF downloads

  27. Enterprise Search Configuration Roadmap Refine

  28. Measure & Iterate Keep ahead of user satisfaction by fixing problems early Obtain client feedback on performance Implicit: Search logs Explicit: Power user feedback Periodic company-wide survey feedback Review and tune accordingly Establish and measure against benchmarks that represent success

  29. Save time

  30. Save money

  31. Key Takeaways • Search is a user experience • Users bring outside expectations from Web search to the Enterprise • OOB is not what you paid for • To be effective, Enterprise search has to be specifically relevant

  32. PORTENT.CO/ess2013-config These are the links (Yes, use .co, not .com)

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