Identifying the Real Problems with Search
Jinfo Blog

By Sally Roberts

Abstract

Sally Roberts explains how to identify the real problems users face when searching and looks at two main types of search: recovery, where the user knows specifically what they are looking for; and discovery, where the search is aimed at finding information on a particular topic.

Item

Identify the Current Issues

As we have seen in the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible", users within many organisations are struggling with information overload. When trying to surmount this challenge, many organisations fall into the trap of implementing a search solution as a method of helping their users without really understanding what the current issues are. 

This blog item encourages you to ask your users what and where the real problems are and also discusses the differences and difficulties between recovery and discovery searches. 

Don't Assume - Ask

A starting point should be a short survey asking your users how they currently approach finding different pieces of information and the difficulties/issues they encounter. There are plenty of free software options available to help you run a survey and analyse the results easily.

• Come up with a list of use-cases or questions around finding information for your respondents to work through

• Although you'll never get a 100% response rate, you can often be surprised at the responses you do get and the comments people take the time to provide

• Ensure that you keep the focus of your survey clear and concise, and that it takes no more than 10 minutes to complete. 

Recovery vs Discovery

In thinking about how you might resolve any issues with findability of information, from either internal or external sources, it's important to think about the two distinct types of search approach, namely recovery and discovery. 

A recovery search is where the user knows the specific information they are looking for, for example, the organisation's IT policy, and they will expect to retrieve that exact document easily and for it to be high up in their list of search results, if not at the top.

In discovery searches, users tend to be looking for information relating to a particular topic, but don't have a particular document or item in mind - for example a search on the topic of "corporate governance".

Recovery searches are harder to perfect as search engines may not get this right "out of the box". The relevance ranking may need adjusting to promote results where the search term has appeared in the title of the document; or to find documents which, although less relevant, have been updated more recently and are therefore more reliable.

Wrangling with Relevance

Working with relevance ranking to get results which meet needs across the business can be resource intensive and difficult to get right - one size does not always fit all. Discovery searches based on keywords tend to perform better and will set the user off on the right path.

The Subscription Article "Blending Internal & External Resources for an Improved Search Experience" looks at why sophisticated search engines such as Google produce superior results compared to internal databases. Options such as federated and enterprise search solutions are discussed and evaluated along with the option of curated sets of material which act as "springboards" on particular topics.

This Blog Item is part of the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible".

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