22. Recap
Why search and survey results
• We are information hoarders
• We struggle with organising
• We struggle with finding
• Our survey show most organisations
struggle, you are most likely not an exception
23. • Adapt the search engine to your needs
• Design a modern user friendly interface
• Add Metadata
• Appoint a search manager
• Hire or contract search expert(s)
• Get feedback
• Your search strategy should include more than
intranet search
Recap
What to do
I am going toconvinceyouwhyyoushouldinvest in search and howto make it work. That shouldn’t take 20 minutes now should it? Please take questions at the end
I work for a company called Findwise, we only do search, or Findability as we like to call. I have been there for 7 years working in various roles. I moved from Sweden last year and I think you can tell why from the pictures.
Have you seen the tv-show hoarders? We are all hoarders when it comes to information, and we spend a lot of time and money doing it. We never throw anything away. And we aren’t very good at keeping order either. And you know what?
A unique survey because it focuses on practitioners, not consultants or vendors. I will go through a few of the results, the report is available for free soon
95 % thinksearchable informationwillincrease
Planning To Make A Plan Is Not A Plan
Big and small – my tips.
No!!!Thisdoes not work. Search engines do not know your users, your content or your organisation.
From the survey – the verysatisfiedhave 1-2 FTE:sworkingwithsearch. Make someoneresponsible for search
This tip is admittedly extraordinarly biased, but it is still true. Just because someone is expert on a CMS like SharePoint system, does not mean they know search. Good search requires specific technical, information management and usability knowledge to get the effects you want. Make sure that they know how to work with the technology, a lot of ”search experts” just do a basic install.
Autosuggestion, spell check and facetsare a must to guide the user. Is anyone not clear on facets? Amazon or gumtree is a great example of using facets. Result presentations should be clear and include a descriptionof the hit as well as metadata, such as section and date in thiscase.
Search engines can go a long way to find structure in your content, but there’s nothing like good old metadata.Make sure to configure the search engine to use the informatoin architecture in your intranet, for facets, result presentation and more.
This one is something that can be done with less effort. Even a email link will do. Don’t direct it to a general support list, make sure the cases are taken care of by someone who cares. This can turn unhappy users to ambassadors.
Or web search, or peoplesearch or documentsearch. It is about making starting a long term journey towards using search to deliver information to your users in the context they need it. Intranet search is still a great first step though.