The perfect search does not exist — but it does
Why should we care about search? Simply because there is no point in having a website or application if end-users can’t find what they are looking for.
One of the first things users interact with an app is probably the search interface. Probably it will shape their impression of the app, their perception of the brand, and their user experience. However, though today’s most apps have a search bar, many don’t provide a holistic search experience. The whole search experience should provide a range of functionalities, relevance of the results, and user-friendly design.
Search Functionalities
Providing search functionalities that search your app is a design strategy that offers users a way to find content and information. Users should be able to find content by searching for specific words or phrases, without knowing the app. Here are several functionalities that will help users easily find what they are looking for:
- Always include search and make it visible and prominent. Search can be persistent or expandable. To decide which one to use you should do user AB testing. However, it should always be visible and prominent.
- Include previous or top searches. Include 5 to 10 previous or top search queries. In addition, add Remove button for the previous searches (in some use cases, Remove All button should also be added).
- Enable auto-complete. No need for users to write the whole search query. Makes it way faster to complete searches that users are intending to type and saves them time. It can be implemented with JavaScript widgets, search results pages, or APIs.
- Enable search suggestions after a few symbols. They are great for providing quick access to search queries or showing queries that would’ve been difficult to discover. Similar to auto-complete, search queries suggestions can be implemented with the help of JavaScript widgets or APIs.
- Implement spelling correction. Decide between the two most common basic principles of spelling correction algorithms:
- Correct spellings for a misspelled query and choose the “closest”’ one;
- If two correctly spelled queries are tied (or nearly tied), select the one that is more common.
- Display number of search results. This is the total number, that the algorithm has indexed for the search query that has been entered.
- Always return search results. It is crucial to design for findability and discoverability at the same time. The flow chart below shows how you can achieve that for any app or website.
Search Relevance
At the end of the day, it all comes to this: search relevance. It is integral to the overall user experience. Algorithms, machine learning, and AI will allow us to fine-tune the search relevance to order search results in the most helpful way to users.
Search relevance is the measure of the accuracy of the relationship between the search query and the search results. To improve relevance, search designers have to work to build in more personalization and contextualization. This includes things like machine learning and natural language processing to enable more conversational search, tracking of user search and browsing history to allow for custom interpretations of queries, and automatic tagging and categorization of web pages for an understanding of content at a higher level than simply that of text keywords.
Search Design Matters
Search design should go beyond the visual impression of the search bar — and often the entire app. Good design will guide users to start using the app and exploring the content. It’s important to make sure that the design is clear and logical without sacrificing functionality. In addition, algorithms, machine learning, and AI can help us to build robust search and tweak it to the preferred business use case.
In conclusion, does the perfect search exists? Probably, but let’s test it first 😊
Read more about the topic here:
👉 https://blog.google/products/search/
👉 https://shopify.engineering/evaluating-search-algorithms
