Site Search

Context
After onboarding Microsoft Clarity, we gained first-ever data on how users navigated the site—and it told a clear story: people were searching, but struggling to find what they needed.

Recognizing that site search can often signal high intent, I led a redesign to make the experience more seamless, intuitive, and conversion-supportive.

Role
Lead Designer

Areas
Research, Interaction Design,
UX Strategy

Tools
Adobe XD, Microsoft Clarity

Year
2025

Objectives & Success Criteria

To improve the efficiency and accuracy of site search, my goal was to redesign the experience for more intuitive interactions, clearer result hierarchy, and better refinement tools—helping users find relevant content faster and with less cognitive effort.

My primary objectives were to:

  • Analyze real user behavior through recordings and click‑paths (Microsoft Clarity)

  • Build a heuristic checklist for search best practices covering query design, search behavior, filtering, and result presentation

  • Evaluate our current search experience against that checklist to identify gaps in findability and interface design

Success criteria included:

  • More relevant and understandable search results

  • Reduce search abandonment

  • Faster task completion through improved filtering and interaction patterns

Research & Insights

Some high-level points and insights found during my quick research.

User Analytics from Microsoft Clarity

Visual and recordings unavailable due to confidentiality

  • Users scroll fast through search results and click “Load More” to view more results indicating they may not be getting relevant results at the top results level

  • Despite a missing search bar in the search results page, users didn’t have difficulty doing a new search query using the search icon in the global sticky navigation

  • Filters were rarely used—could indicate a irrelevant flat level filter system and low visual hierarchy

Heuristics Evaluation

Evaluation of Tanium’s site search (scroll within the embedded frame to view)

Key Findings & Insights

  • Current site search follows familiar patterns but feels outdated and lacks refinement.

  • Results page offers only basic filtering, no sorting, and doesn’t include an on‑page search bar—forcing users back to the navigation to start a new query.

  • No empty‑state experience. While this prevents errors, it misses a major opportunity to turn a dead end into a guided discovery path.

  • Search‑error redirect page provides little value: no suggestions, no prompts to retry, and no curated content to help users recover or explore.

Self-composed guideline checklist for site search usability and best practices (scroll within the embedded frame to view)

Interaction Design Strategy

With the knowledge gathered, we framed our strategy around three core interaction goals:

  1. Redefine the result hierarchy
    Enhance the visual and semantic structure of results so users can quickly find and understand what matters most.

  2. Introduce predictive and refinement tools
    To reduce cognitive load and align with search flows found in expected behavior patterns, offer type-ahead suggestions and categorized filters for query refinement.

  3. Optimize error & no-result experiences
    Design helpful guidance when queries return with no results (e.g. suggestions, search tips) so users can continue on their task flow rather than bouncing.

Recommendations based on research findings that drove the design strategy

Prototyping & Interaction Designs

Flow map and task sequence
(mapping how users enter a query, receive suggestions, view filtered results, and adjust search criteria)

Interaction states design process (scroll within the embedded frame to view)

Given the solid foundation already in place, I treated the redesign as an optimization project—retaining what worked while applying best practices to elevate the overall experience. I created updated design directions to modernize the interface and enhance usability, which were well-received by both the team and stakeholders.

Final Designs

Search box redesign

Filters, result, pagination states

Results list and visual hierarchy

Error experience

Final mockup of site search results page (scroll within the embedded frame to view)

Outcomes & Next Steps

Project paused due to prioritization shifts but resulted in a clear interaction design playbook for search across the corporate website.

Future enhancements:

  • Continue to monitor user paths and tasks flows on Microsoft Clarity to gather data on optimizing path flows

  • Enhance personalization based on user roles (will need to onboard website personalization tool)

Reflection & Learnings

What worked well:

  • Having enough time for research allowed for more informed targeted interaction design decisions

What I’d refine:

  • Explore AI-assisted searches to accommodate for natural language search query and provide smart answers for contextual relevance