Global Search
This project addresses the usability issues with the Global Search feature in our product, aiming to make search results more intuitive, accessible, and contextually relevant. User feedback revealed that the existing global search did not meet expectations, often making it difficult to locate and interact with objects efficiently.
We improved global search by enabling users to get to the object in context. This change required working with our Engineering partners to work around an architecture that did not support this type of navigation.
Project Context
In the initial version of global search in our product, the development team implemented a solution where users could only edit an object from the search results. They believed most people searched for an object to edit it, and felt confident this easy-to-build solution was sufficient. However, the utilization for global search was quite low - only 50 searches were conducted a month across hundreds of users. Yet, many stakeholders remained unconvinced that the implementation was problematic.
We heard from several key customers that the solution did not meet their needs.
“Global search helps you find the object - but NOT the object in context.”
“In a lot of cases, the edit button in global search does not give me the capability to perform my intended action.”
Design Objectives
Increase the efficiency of the task that prompted the search
Show the context of an object
Provide important metadata
The Problem Space
By conducting over 20 interviews with Infoblox users and internal stakeholders, the needs identified were as follows:
A way to view and find relevant objects quickly
More contextual information in search results page to drill down efficiently
Provide alternate paths if the object exists in multiple containers
The number of clicks to locate an IP address (a common search task)
Initial Designs
Initial concepts incorporated existing design patterns.
We completed 8 rounds of usability testing with 65 participants (49 external IT professionals and 16 Infoblox users) to refine solutions
Final Designs
The final concepts incorporated several improvements:
a hyperlink takes the user to the object itself
the location (or multiple locations) are shown. in the result
critical metadata that is unique to an object are provided
the results page shows the input and number of search results
The 11 clicks were reduced to 4.
Results and Impact
The efficient of search improved by reducing the average click count by 50%
Results display the location of an object or additional locations when objects have multiple containers
Specific metadata are shown for the top 16 object types