From Query to Clarity:
A Journey in Search System Design
From Zero to One:
A Journey in Search System Design
Dear capstone friends, this case study is clearly incomplete but I highly appreciate any feedback you might have:)
Designing a tailored search system for an HRMS platform.
What was the project?
I helped design Guide’s search experience by researching search technologies, conducting interviews, and collaborating with our client to refine solutions through iterative feedback.
Some context
We were the search experience team consisting of six UMD master’s students, and we primarily interfaced with Guide's co-founder Tim. Our project is still going on, this case study the work until our first round of testing mid- fidelity prototypes.
Our client, Guide, was a small Washington, D.C.-based startup, whose product was an HR training content management platform.
What was the problem?
We were starting from scratch. Guide was a stage 0 HRMS start up just starting out with development, and it lacked any search functionality.
Design iterations
We iterated on our designs every
Mid fidelity designs and the insights that shaped them
Early features that we tested out through mid-fidelity prototypes. These are some actionable insights from our interviews- some obvious, some not.
Video Information Preview
Category Navigation
My Guide Visibility
Progress Tracker
Navigation Context
Content Structure Clarity
"I want that sidebar with assignments, recently viewed, etc. there all the time... This is everything that I need as soon as I get in."
Users wanted it, but our client resisted a "dashboard." So, we reframed it as "My Guide," a centralized content tracker—suddenly, he was sold.
A situated status bubble with quick links to etc and live progress bars.
Guide was designed to have a scrolling feed of micro-sized video content.We introduced a breadcrumb trail to help users keep track of which playlist they're currently in and giving them constant status updates on where they are within the app
Bread Crumbs
Missing separationg in content format (playlist vs video )
Positive feedback on filters
Quote: "Filters are useful, but I still have to click on videos to see how long they are. If I know the duration upfront, I don't have to guess or waste time."
Action: Add video duration and series information (add annotation if the video exists indeoendantly or if it is a prt of a series) to preview cards
Useful Insights
My Guide
Users wanted it, but our client resisted a "dashboard." So, we reframed it as "My Guide," a centralized content tracker—suddenly, he was all in.
Research
We synthesized actionable insights through multiple steps
We kicked off our research sprint "0" trying to understand the and the context around it with the BMC, competitor analyses,
Competitive analyses and secondary research
Co
Persona Development: Created detailed user personas based on interview insights to guide our design decisions
User Journey Mapping: Visualized each persona’s experience to pinpoint challenges and opportunities in the search process.
Affinity Mapping: Clustered insights from user interviews into themes to prioritize design focus areas
Testing
User testing mid-fidelity prototypes
Insight Synthesis: Consolidated research and testing data into clear, actionable recommendations for final design improvements.
Process
Process
Sprint structure
Our journey began with background research, followed by a systematic five-sprint cycle of wireframing, user testing, and iterative refinement.
Client meetings with Tim
Bi-weekly meetings with Tim, with ad hock email communication
Designing
Each step of this process helped us narrow down a large set of abstract research insights to tangible design solutions.
Sketching
Starting out with a sketching excercise- each of us came up with a bunch of sketching notes, followed by a "Crazy 8" activity where we brainstormed and sketched 8 ideas in 8 minutes.
One of us was the interpreter, that went over each of the sketches- keeping the person who sketched it anonymous. This was done to
This was not mine
Sketch Notes
Crazy 8s
We
User Testing: Tested prototypes with target users to identify usability issues and gather actionable feedback.
Sketching
Mapping
After our research, each of us came up with a bunch of How Might We questions- we had a round of voting by ourselves and then one with Tim to make sure we're all aligned
We came up with how might we questions as a team
Deciding
Deciding
After our research, each of us came up with a bunch of How Might We questions- we had a round of voting by ourselves and then one with Tim to make sure we're all aligned
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
We started with research then looped between designing, testing, and iterating over 5 sprint cycles
Timeline
We were very very organized, all files were in easily locatable. This is my first time being this organised and very worth it, will do in future
In this project, we reimagined the HR training search experience, empowering employees and HR professionals with a streamlined path to discovering learning content.
