Windows Search
Intelligent search experience to find content locally, and from the web in millisecons.
Engagement was very low because people didn't understand how to use
After launching one of my designs globally, engagement of the canvas increased, features were discovered and it helped drove revenue by Millions of dollars
I played a key role improving engagement of Windows Search, where I was collaborated with other designers and stakeholders to create different versions of the product. My focus was the zero-input canvas, ensuring scalability and accessibility across all markets worldwide.
Engagement was only 3% of Windows Search's users. The product broke common patterns for search experiences, and it was placed and how the experience worked made Lack of awareness capabilities. It had unnatural search behaviors.
My scope of work was to help increase user engagement, improve the experience to inform the click and optimize for speed.
To empathize and understand the situation and new canvas I would be working on, I talked with the Research team and Data Engineer to gather insights about how Windows Search box was performing at the moment.
After some investigation, I discovered that users had difficulty to understand all the things they could search for because the canvas was very overwhelming. It had Cortana, an intelligent Digital Assistant, as well as different types of content on the same experience mixed together. That was causing uncertainty about what they could search for, what would be the destination post-click and the predictability of the results.
I collaborated with the PM and Engineers to set a strategy, consider feasibility and align on scope.
In order to overcome challenges of the canvas positioning and unfamiliar patterns and improve the user experience, my design strategy was to:
Simplify the experience to help users focus on their task and understand how to use the canvas easily while discovering capabilities.
Focus on enabling productivity by improving speed and perceptions to reduce their time spent looking for content locally and on the web.
Increase trust by informing the click properly and work on relevance models to improve the list of results displayed.
This search box had millions of unique users daily, around the globe. That's the reason I had to have in consideration many other aspects like localization, truncation, social aspects, accessibility, computer's settings, among many others things.
Each designer of the team designed different options each taking in consideration all the constrains of the project. I wanted to push innovation and created a diverse approach where some of the designs where very minimalists to aim for simplicity and enhance focus on the task.
On the other hand, others of my designs were very rich visually to try to appeal users and create a delightful experience while searching that was inviting and lowered the level of uncertainty while browsing and using the canvas.
Collaborating with Engineering and Testers, I was able to launch the test on controlled cohorts with real users around the world. We focused on analyzing a set of metrics we were looking at like overall engagement, task completion rate, amount of features discovered per user, and such.
Based on the data analysis and other inputs after the tests, I was able to understand the performance of the designs and create different versions that included successful patterns and design elements.
Partnering with the Research Team, we did some research with my design proposal. It was then when we discovered that the new design was helping people to kick-off their first search on without hesitations. That allowed them to learn quickly how to use the canvas and discover things they could search for.
People liked how simple the design was compared to previous versions. One of the participants mentioned the design was similar to a "remote control", which helped increase their confidence on how to use it because it felt familiar to them.
After gathering all the insights from participants, it was demonstrated that my designed were able to help people complete teir tasks and achieve their goals of finding content.
As one of my final steps on my contributions to this project, I gather all Research and data insights to propose the implementation of my design into the new version of Windows Search's update.
I presented it to the Leadership Team to seek alignment and final approval for the design implementation. Then, I collaborated closely with Engineering to get the experience ready to be launched and pass all the standards and legal requirements.
Quickly, it became the place to-go to search on Windows devices for millions of users daily.
