There are a number of fundamental principles that underpin the design and delivery of successful search. These relate to the way that staff use search, and the types of tasks they are trying to complete. They are also built on an understanding of staff motivations and behaviors. These principles are not new or radical, rather they are built upon the observation of many users when they search. They distil down common behaviors and approaches that can be analyzed to help design better and more effective search tools.

These principles apply across all forms of enterprise search, regardless of whether users are searching an intranet or the corporate website or document management system. While specific user tasks may vary, the same fundamental principles define an effective search solution. It is useful to encourage project teams to return to these principles when making design decisions, as they will often provide insight into the right approach to take when confronted with several competing options.

At a Glance: Key Principles
These are the fundamental principles that underpin an effective search engine:

• Search should work like magic, so that users can type in a few words, hit the search button, and find the information they are looking for. • Search results should be relevant, with the most useful pages or documents in the first few hits. Staff must also be able to assess the relevance of the search results in order to trust it.
• There should be a strong information scent that allows users to quickly and easily distinguish between search results, helping them find the required information.
• To inspire staff to actually use the search tool, they must trust it. Users must be confident that they will be able to find the desired information, and that using search will be quicker and easier than any other mechanism.
• Search must be designed with a strong understanding of search needs and behavior of staff throughout the organization. This is particularly important when delivering search for specialist users.
• Work should be done on behalf of search users in order to make it quicker and easier to find information. This delivers real (and measurable) productivity benefits to the organization.
• At the end of the day, usability is not a training problem. As it is not practical to train all staff to "search better," the search engine needs to be designed to match current skill levels and experience.

These principles are explored further in the following sections, with examples of what they mean in practice, and implementation tips.

Works Like Magic
Thanks to Google, users expect to be able to type in a word (or two) and find the page they are looking for, preferably in the first few results. This is not an unreasonable expectation. At the most fundamental level, search is supposed to make it quick and easy for staff to find things, thereby saving them time and improving productivity. This can be distilled down to a very simple concept: search should work like magic. As much as is possible, search should always give staff the information they need, somewhere in the first few results.

Staff should not have to learn complex search functionality, or spend time carefully considering the most effective search terms and options. Regardless of what the user is searching on or which system the user is searching, the right results should be returned every time.

Delivering this standard of search experience involves making under-the-hood improvements to the search engine to improve its effectiveness. This includes tweaking weightings and other configuration settings, as well as exploring the use of spell-checking and other enhancements.

Other practical steps include the following: Implementing search engine synonyms, which match up equivalent terms (such as bike and bicycle). This addresses the mismatch between what a user is searching for and the contents (and metadata) of page and documents. They can also be used to resolve spelling mistakes and other typos. Implement search engine best bets, which are a hand-created list of key pages for common searches. For example, if a user searches for leave, they are almost always looking for either the leave form or the leave policy.

Poor search results actually provide information that can be used to refine future user experiences. Thus, it is important to monitor failed searches and take corrective activity to tune results accordingly. This should be done as part of the regular monthly schedule of search engine maintenance and enhancement.

Works Like Magic
Thanks to Google, users expect to be able to type in a word (or two) and find the page they are looking for, preferably in the first few results. This is not an unreasonable expectation. At the most fundamental level, search is supposed to make it quick and easy for staff to find things, thereby saving them time and improving productivity. This can be distilled down to a very simple concept: search should work like magic. As much as is possible, search should always give staff the information they need, somewhere in the first few results.

Staff should not have to learn complex search functionality, or spend time carefully considering the most effective search terms and options. Regardless of what the user is searching on or which system the user is searching, the right results should be returned every time.

Delivering this standard of search experience involves making under-the-hood improvements to the search engine to improve its effectiveness. This includes tweaking weightings and other configuration settings, as well as exploring the use of spell-checking and other enhancements.

Other practical steps include the following: Implementing search engine synonyms, which match up equivalent terms (such as bike and bicycle). This addresses the mismatch between what a user is searching for and the contents (and metadata) of page and documents. They can also be used to resolve spelling mistakes and other typos. Implement search engine best bets, which are a hand-created list of key pages for common searches. For example, if a user searches for leave, they are almost always looking for either the leave form or the leave policy.

Poor search results actually provide information that can be used to refine future user experiences. Thus, it is important to monitor failed searches and take corrective activity to tune results accordingly. This should be done as part of the regular monthly schedule of search engine maintenance and enhancement.