Intranet Benchmarking Forum

Improving Intranet Search

Following on from our look at intranet search this week, IBF have recently released some new research into Improving Intranet Search, the IBF web site contains a summary of this report.

The report, authored by Elizabeth Marsh, looks at the challenges facing intranet managers around intranet search:

"Search is one of the most common causes of dissatisfaction for intranet users. Among IBF members, scores for search are some of the lowest in the Design and Usability quadrant of the IBF benchmarking model: members achieve an average for people search of 57 per cent, and an average for content search of 66 per cent.

At the same time, search tends to be a focal point for users’ frustration when they don’t find the information they need – irrespective of whether the search tool is the problem. So the pressure is on intranet managers to provide effective search."

After extensive research Elizabeth comes up with some lessons for intranet managers:

Lessons for intranet managers

To overcome these barriers and provide effective search, we make six key
recommendations:

• Develop strategy and define scope – be clear on how search should be
  developed to support the overall intranet strategy
• Understand users’ needs – there is a wide range of search functionality
  available and no single route to providing effective search. It is therefore
  essential to understand the needs of users to select the best options
• Invest in continuous improvement – achieving effective search is an
  ongoing process of adjustment based on user feedback and search
  reports
• Get usability right – follow best practice for usability and focus primarily
  on providing a search that works for the majority of users
• Don’t view search in isolation – search is part of a bigger picture, and you
  need to understand and address the other factors that affect search
  performance
• Build user trust – user trust must be built gradually and carefully.

Successful intranet search at BT

You might not think the tips from the last post are rocket science, that’s because they are not, but many organisations do not spend enough time understanding how their users use search and how it could be improved.  Improving search does take time and dedication.  At BT the intranet team have worked hard in this area resulting in an award winning search capability.

Mark Morrell, Intranet Manager at BT described what went into search at BT, and why they are such worthy award winners:

• The intranet team took time to research and understand the search engine they had, both the limitations it might have and also how to get the most out the functionality it offered
• Both basic and advanced search is available from every intranet page
• But before people even get to search there are several alternatives to aide the user in finding the content they need
  Popular sites and links
  Popular searches
  And A-Z listing of content
  Other places to look which may be useful
• Once the user chooses to search, they can opt to search one of the following
  The intranet
  The internet
  Internal news groups
• On the search results page there are
  Recommended links (developed through analysis of successful search results)
  Good details around the results, to give a clearer idea if this is the content the user is looking for
  The ability to refine the search without too much reworking

So, as you can see, BT’s intranet search already has many of the features looked for in the IBF search benchmark, however Mark describes how BT are always looking to improve the search further and not sitting still on this. “Our next plans are to review the search engine we use and to extend the search capability beyond the content held within our content management systems, further out into our document management systems and other databases”

They might be good already, but there can always be improvement… how does your intranet search fair?

Award winning intranet search

A further two IBF Best Intranet Awards were presented this week to:

• BT for Intranet Search
• HSBC for Usability

So what makes up a good search on an intranet?

IBF evaluates people and content search based on the steps users must perform to find results:

• Specify the search text
• Assess the search results
• Access the search results ...and as most people start searching without really knowing what they are looking for…
• Refine or revise and search again

So looking in a little more detail at these steps, look at your own intranet search and ask the following questions...

The search box – making it easy for the searcher

• Is a people search available from every page?
• Is content search available on every page?
• Does people and content search each have its own search box?
• Is it in the same place on every page?
• Is the search field on results page ready for the next search?

The ease of assessing and accessing the search results

• Does the results page provide feedback and advice, especially if there are no results?
• How detailed are the search results?  Just page titles, or people’s names are often not enough
• Does the information on the results page allow the searcher to make an informed choice about which are worth investigating further?
• Are the results laid out clearly on the page?
• How many are clearly displayed on the first pages (users still hate scrolling!)Does the results page indicate how many items were found?How good are the results shown?  If the first few are poor, trust in the search engine rapidly reduces
• Is there a clue about what has been found?  A web page, a document, a PowerPoint presentation?

Supporting the need to tweak the search text and search again.

As mentioned above many searches start by not really knowing what they are looking for.  The first search is often used to help them refine the search to then try again to find what they really want.

• Does the results page include search feedback and advice?
• Are there suggestions for other spellings or close spellings?
• If there are no results, do your results just say ‘no results found’, or does it try to help the user?
• Is the original search text there on the same page, so it can be easily adjusted?

Next we’ll be looking in more detail at what BT have been doing recently around Intranet search and why they won the IBF award.

IBF's Best Intranet Awards announced

The winners of IBF Intranet Awards for 2007 were announced this week at the quarterly IBF 100 meeting held at The British Library:

• Alliance & Leicester for Content
• Transport for London for Visual Design
• GlaxoSmithKline for Engagement
• AXA for Accessibility
• BDO Stoy Hayward and HSBC joint winners for Usability
• BT for Search
• Legal & General for Readability

The awards recognise achievement among IBF members and help to promote intranet best practice.

Judges are looking for members whose intranets have performed consistently well across the board in their IBF benchmarking review, and exceptionally well in their category. They use their knowledge of the organisation, its industry and its challenges to select a winner and runner-up in each category

In 2008 IBF are introducing new categories to cover the newer areas of benchmarking it's members:

• strategy and governance
• business value
• communication and culture

Over the next couple of weeeks I hope to catch up with a few of the winners and share a little more about their successes.

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