UITP has a breadth of informative content, reports, and members visible on their site. We were tasked with making an advanced search that supported their internal and external audiences to access this content quicker and effectively. 

Their original search looked striking, but the functionality was clunky with limited filters and slow to engage, proving difficult for those with low data available. Our first step was UX research to understand what constituted ‘good search UX’, with booking.com ranking the highest for the desired outcome. 

We evaluated the data structure of booking.com and mapped it to UITP’s content in Miro to visually demonstrate the proposed UI structure. 

From there, we organised the taxonomy and data structure to be able to filter with “AND” and “OR” logic to yield relevant results by specific types of content and theme filters. The  methodology was embedded in all search functions on the site including knowledge & research, events, members, and sitewide search. This is both excellent for sustainability and UX. The same code is used for all these different contexts and the search behaves consistently across the site so users know what will happen when they click a filter.

Migrating a wealth of content to this refreshed filtering system required a collaborative effort. Our senior developer, Patrick, began with analysing and cleaning up their existing database to then convert that into our WordPress custom blocks so that the content is usable on the front end. Not all content had a like for like match, which UITP used as an opportunity to update and refresh content, increasing findability and relevancy across the board. At launch, this combined effort resulted in increased SEO and site performance with 92 and 99 Lighthouse scores on the search pages, respectively.

On the front end, a search UI that adjusts based on the content type a user picks, for a personalised experience. The search is intuitive, with pills showcasing your search; they are sticky allowing for quick removal as you scroll. With a 7 day cache, searches are stored minimising load time for the next user. Simultaneously, this enhances the main site search auto-complete, connecting all the content filters and showcasing popular searches.

On the backend, their 13 international offices now have a taxonomy and filtering system that enables accessible consistency when uploading. The content blocks are interchangeable and customisable on the website, meaning UITP can feature events or publications on the homepage or future pages without restriction.

With our close collaboration, we created a long-term plan with a Continuous Improvement retainer to optimise search functionality further including boosting recent posts in results, fuzzy search matching, Google Analytic integrations to assist the UITP team in optimising content based on what they’re audience are looking for!