Forging an unified search ecosystem to power global internal systems
Product Design
Internal Tools
SaaS
The problem: The cost of fragmentation
In a company operating at a global scale, knowledge is power, but access to that knowledge was broken. Critical datas and informations were scattered through an intimidating array of systems from document management systems to sophisticated engineering databases. This severe fragmentation forced employees into a dizzying context-switching loop, resulting in duplicated efforts, mounting frustrations, and a measurable loss of productivity equivalent to thousands of working hours every week.
The foundation question: How Might We...
We have framed our work a single, powerful How Might We? question: How Might We design a simple, functional, intelligent and robust search experience that enables all global employees to discover any internal resource in seconds?
My Role
I was assigned to work with the cross functional team and also engage with the employees in understanding their pain points while analysing the research insights report in designing the search experience.
Team
1 Product Design Lead, 1 Product Designer,
1 UX Researcher and 1 Product Manager
Timeline
6 Months
Goal 1: The quick search experience
Replacing a multi-platform, complex search workflow with one clear intuitive interaction that feels instant and effortless.
Goal 2: Precision Filtering
Helping users reduce large information sets quickly and accurately by means of highly intelligent, context-aware filtering tools.
Goal 3: Personalised Search Collections
To enable power users to have a personalised search environment with buckets of important apps created for them according to their specific work needs.
Goal 4: Advanced Query Building & Collaboration
To allow power users a rich, easy-to-use capability to construct complex logical searches without requiring engineering skills.
Final Results & Strategic Impact
The launch of the One Search engine brought a radical change from the original state of a set of information silos to the existing optimum state of a common system. The common search engine has successfully given back thousands of hours of productive time of the workforce.
Reflections and Takeaways
Simplicity at Scale
The success of this project depended on the need to balance a world-class minimalist design philosophy against the huge challenge provided by large, disparate sets of internal data.
Human-Centred Design as Driver
Feedback loops with our users globally had to be frequent and rigorous to take the team past assumptions into solving real high-friction pain points.
Growth through Execution
To work on this project of this magnitude was a strong catalyst for growth and required the usage of robust "system thinking" in order to present the client with a cohesive, end-to-end solution.