Getting the Basics Right First
- Information Needs
- Content Issues
- Security
- Usability
- Relevance
- Maintenance
- Analytics
The simplest Intranet search is much better than nothing, while complex knowledge systems can require too many resources and delay access to information. Finding the sweet spot in between is the key.
Challenges include finding your organization's true (often unspoken) information needs, understanding the content available, access to content, security, interfaces, processing, log analysis and more. The UI is only the beginning.
How Search Works
Example Results - Bad
This results page has the following flaws and a few good elements:
- There is no context, no site header or footer, no navigation links.
- The page title itself is mysterious: should include the site searched and the query term
- The search field is fine, though who cares how long it took?
- The sponsored links are weird and not obviously relevant
- There are no unique page titles, so nothing to hint at topics
- The page description is almost duplicates and not helpful
- The match terms in context work very nicely
- The match score and red dots are mysterious though might be OK for this audience
- If there are no document dates, shouldn't say "No Date"
- The URLs are fairly helpful, and hey! dates!
Example Results - Good
This results page has generally good attributes:
- Site context on the title bar and the top banner, standard graphic and color elements
- Search results field on left (could be more obvious)
- Default to all results: options to choose more specialized tabs
- Titles relatively helpful
- Highlight and bolding of match terms in context very good
- URL links clearly shown
- Dates are nice but often wrong (see first result)
Example of Faceted Metadata Results
Facets are department, color family and price.