The Global Search project aims to create a unified and efficient search experience across all VMware services.
When users need to find objects or capabilities across their VMware Cloud ecosystem, they must have a high level of VMware expertise in order to find what they're looking for.
Aligning with VMware’s current priority to bring siloed services together into a unified experience, the Global Search project empowers customers with the ability to access their resources from any service. With a search feature, customers will save time and frustration when navigating across services.
As a team, we aimed to understand and prioritize what customers want to search for the most. We also wanted to have the search be responsive to the service the customer is currently using. Services use the same vocabulary for different resources/objects, which means communicating where & what the customer is searching for is critical.
With a short timeline to develop a proof of concept (POC), we focused on conducting a competitive analysis and gathering relevant user analytics. We collected different search experiences from the following companies.
During weekly meetings, I presented my iterations to the team where we discussed design decisions, project goals, and feasibility.
During the early stages of iterations, we wanted to explore every possible option. The two most viable options were a side-panel search and a centered search bar. We ultimately went with the centered search bar for a couple of reasons. With the intent of the search being used globally for all services, we wanted to have a larger space to put information. The bar is also a more commonly used way to display a search, making it easier for customers to find/use it.
Our team wanted to make sure to provide a call to action (CTA) at dead ends. When customers use the search feature, a search result will eventually have no results. This is an opportunity to understand what the customer was expecting to find and why it didn’t show in the search results.
To get stakeholder buy-in from other teams, we created a proof of concept (POC) to demonstrate the value of the search. We established the POC within VMware’s Cloud Console where customers first land before accessing other VMware services.
One month after the POC search feature went live in staging, I created a survey to gather insights and create a roster of participants for future user interviews/usability testing.
Customers would like to see results from different services.
76% of customers wanted to see results from all of their services.
Customers expect resources to be searchable.
89% of customers said resources would be what they search for the most.
There is a need for a single place to manage resources.
Multiple customers mentioned a lack of resource management without a question prompting this subject.
With the expectation that all service resources can be searchable, our next step should include what this will look like within the search. There is a resonating lack of resource management across services. This may be a potential opportunity in the future as part of the Global Search project.
Positives
Through each stage of the project, our team worked extremely well together. Disagreements were resolved quickly and each voice was valued equally. We now have over 100 customers who are willing to participate in interviews and usability testing. Through the POC and research, this initiative has opened the door to VMware services acting as one rather than as separate entities.
Improvements
Getting other services on board with adding a search proved difficult. Being cautious of simultaneous searches leading to a crash, we had to move much slower with a rollout approach. Although a POC was requested, we could have started the user survey before working on the design.
The Global Search project aims to create a unified and efficient search experience across all VMware services.
When users need to find objects or capabilities across their VMware Cloud ecosystem, they must have a high level of VMware expertise in order to find what they're looking for.
