Implementing Website Search in a Major University Dan Jackson Senior Web Architect,
“5 th best university in the world”* *depends who you ask
10 faculties 110 departments, institutes, and research centres 820 websites
Generally, the UCL search was described as ‘not fit for purpose’ by those that use it….The result is that many users do not use the UCL search and instead use Google search or find other navigation mechanisms. Nomensa UCL Audit & User Research Report
CHALLENGE #1 SEARCH ENGINE CONFIGURATION
When it comes to search, install and forget no longer works.
CHALLENGE #2 CONTENT QUALITY/SCOPE
UCL URLs 999,981
of those… 744,027 <5 page views in 2013
CHALLENGE #3 SEARCH UX
ADVANCED SEARCH‘BEST BET’ FILETYPE FILTER FACETS RELATED QUERIES
AIM #1 BRING ORDER TO THE CONTENT CHAOS
AIM #2 IMPROVE THE SEARCH UX
ISO : Human-centred design for interactive systems
Use cases I want to accomplish a task and need a definitive document I need to find out what research is being carried on a topic across UCL I need to find staff with specific expertise or in a specific role Personas Governance –completing a process, usually involving a definitive document Development – developing a course, a process, a project or event Interface – supporting users Relationship – external user building a relationship with UCL ‘Specify context of use’
Scenario A Persona: Prospective postgraduate student (‘Relationship’) Task type: Exploratory Data: Courses, Websites Goal: ‘I want to find out what MSc courses are available in chemical engineering’ Scenario B Persona: Any Task type: Known item Data: People, Research, Websites Goal: I want to find out how to contact Anthony Finkelstein’ Persona: Researcher / academic / media (‘Development’) Task type: Exploratory Data: Events, Websites, Research Goal: ‘I’m organising an event on NLP want to find out who else is working in the area & what they’re doing’ Scenario C ‘Specify requirements’
Middle game: “the main phase in the search experience, where queries are clarified, disambiguated, refined, etc. ‘Produce & evaluate design solutions’
Opening game: “the stage in the user journey prior to query articulation” ‘Produce & evaluate design solutions’
Opening game: “the stage in the user journey prior to query articulation” ‘Produce & evaluate design solutions’
QUALITY CONTENT AND METADATA
Without good content quality no search engine is going to deliver quality (trustworthy) results. Martin White, ‘Why All Search Projects Fail’ php
FOCUS ON USERS
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
ONGOING INVESTMENT
White’s Rule of Search Investment: The impact of search on business performance depends more on the level of investment in a skilled team of people to support search than it does on the level of investment in search technology.
Thanks