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Reviews and Feedback
"Search lies in the middle ground between non-technical intranet managers and IT managers. The first group are primarily focused on design, content and user needs but don't master technical aspects; the second group primarily focus on infrastructure, tool and security issues but don't master user expectation issues. Improving Intranet Search by Step Two Designs can be seen as a bridging tool - bringing these two key sides together in their understanding of what to do to make search work for the users instead of users working to search!
"Improving Intranet Search demystifies search, making it truly achievable. Overworked intranet managers will discover how a few hours a week - well spent - can improve the user experience dramatically. New intranet managers, still learning on the job, will find it to be a fast track to understanding what search is, what users want, and how to meet their needs. Intranet managers with low budgets will discover numerous tips on how to improve search without spending money.
"If you're in a large, complex organisation, you'll need to increase the time estimates considerably. You'll also want to develop the different practical action points such as user research in more detail and use specific techniques that work for staff spread over the world. You'll also have complex content quality issues that impact the quality of search results, but this is beyond the scope of the report.
"Overall, the basic principles and recommendations are all relevant regardless of the size and complexity of the organisation. I highly recommend this report to intranet managers - both beginners and experienced - external consultants and agencies specialised in intranets. Search, CMS and other intranet-related vendors would do well to read it too, since search impacts almost all aspects of user and business needs regarding intranets.
"Improving Intranet Search sets the bar very high by saying "search should work like magic" and "over time, intranet search can continue to grow and prosper until it is a key business tool that is relied on by staff". These are two admirable goals that are in fact absolutely necessary if the intranet is to fulfil its role as a business critical tool. Improving Intranet Search will certainly take you a long ways down that path. I congratulate the Step Two Designs for managing to make a complex issue appear clear and achievable!"
Jane McConnellNetStrategy Jmc
"Step Two has assembled yet another package of practical guidelines, pragmatic advice, and enlightening examples, this time targeting
intranet search. Even a quick read will provide Intranet managers with a list of "quick-win" tasks that will lead to major performance
improvements at a minimal cost."
Louis Rosenfeld
Co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
"'Let's face it, search sucks on most intranets.' So begins StepTwo Designs' new handbook, Improving Intranet Search. The
report helpfully goes beyond Search-as-project to Search-as-service. But as a service, you can't just turn it on and expect it provide what
your employees need. Effective search -- on your Intranet or anywhere else -- is not a commodity utility. It's something that needs care and
feeding on an ongoing basis. The good news: regardless of system, there is a lot you can do to improve the searcher's experience, and this
handbook lays out all the tasks in a nice, easily-digested format. Does your intranet search engine suck? Try to fix it first before seeking
out a new tool."
Tony Byrne, CMS Watch
"In a crisp, insightful and practical report that's brimming with useful tips, James takes us into the world of intranet
search. His recommendations, which include focusing on simplicity, prioritizing search by audience, and doing the hard work
as an intranet manager (instead of the user having to do it) are all important thoughts that we're not reminded of enough.
If you're thinking about implementing search or even just improving search on your intranet, this report is a must read."
Shiv Singh, Avenue A | Razorfish
"Improving Intranet Search is a compilation of all the important issues that intranet managers need to know in order to
design a terrific search application for their intranet. Another great report from Step Two which will help intranet mangers
to optimize the usability and raise the perceived value of their intranet."
Lukas Karrer, Stimmt
"This report will become the bible of intranet search. It is an accessible, non-technical guide which focuses on the user experience. The
use of well chosen real life examples and scenarios makes this report extremely practical. For intranet managers new to search, this report is
indispensable. Even experienced managers will find many tips which enable them to improve their intranet search."
Maxine Armitage, Find It Information Management
"As James observes in the introduction to this 115 page report, the inadequacies of search may be doom an intranet as a whole to failure.
After all, if staff can't find information on the intranet when they need it, will they even come to the site in the first place. Over the
last few years I must have seen several hundred intranets, and in virtually every case the search functionality was poor. I have just been
looking at a new intranet where the search functionality does not provide stemming on plurals, so that a search on 'complaint' produces a
different set of documents to 'complaints'!
All too often the effort seems to have gone to adding content to the intranet, with significant investments in CMS software and information
architecture. Search is seen as an afterthought, and purchased separately with whatever remains from the CMS budget.
Search is now being seen as a crucial success factor in intranet implementation, helped by the vigorous marketing of the Google Search
Applicance. This excellent report is therefore very timely, and as with all of the author's reports it is full of very practical guidance and
the presentation is faultless. The approach taken is to set out two personas, one for a specialist searcher and one for someone with little
search expertise, and then compare the value of various elements of a search engine, especially the way that hits are displayed on the screen.
This works well, and shows the benefits of personas at the same time.
The report opens with a section on evaluating search engines, and the process of selecting a new search engine. However most of the report
is taken up with advice on refining the search interface (12 pages), refining the search results (24 pages) and search engine tuning/usage
logs (25 pages). The report concludes with sections on usability testing and the importance of allocating adequate staff resources to search
engine optimization.
I found virtually nothing in the report I would disagree with, but there are perhaps a few areas that might be expanded in a second edition.
The report stops at search screen management and I would have liked to see a comment on how to locate a search term within a document, for
example by highlighting the term, or providing a few lines of text to show each occurrence of the keyword in context. The aim of any search
is to find information, and not just a document. I would also like to have seen more discussion about metadata issues, especially synonym
management, and the problems of intranets that contain content in more than one language.
Overall though this is a report that every intranet manager should have in their document collection. It is readable, authoritative, and
encapsulates search best practice. It should also be required reading by search engine vendors, most of whose public web sites demonstrate a
depressing lack of commitment to search excellence."
Martin White, Intranet Focus
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