Developing & Implementing Findability Standards

This session describes how we developed findability standards at Harvard Business School (HBS). The search engine and UI are only two components of an effective findability system, the others being User research, content, and processes followed by creators of the content. All these components need to work well for optimal search UX. So search is not just a technology problem but also an information management one. This session will cover why the standards were needed, how they were developed, and how they are being implemented. While this is a case study of how this work was done at HBS, this session will present a search and findability framework (adapted from Morville & Callendar) which can be used at other organizations. The approach we used can be adopted/adapted for use in other organizations, and the audience members will most likely recognize their own roles in the “Who will be using the standards” section.

The key takeway of this session is that making information findable in an Enterprise setting is more than a matter of swapping out your existing search engine. Rather, the content and information also needs to be enriched and augmented and user needs analyzed in a standardized fashion to deliver a better findability experience.