Intranet Review Toolkit

Search should be located consistently on intranet pages so staff can easily identify and locate it when needed.

0: Site search is not available throughout the site.

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5: Site search is available on every page of the site and it is consistently positioned.

0: The site does not have a simple search, or the default is a complex or ‘advanced’ search.

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5: A simple search is available on every page of the site and the text box is long enough to encourage users to enter more than one search word. All other options have been removed, or placed on an ‘advanced’ search page.

The only exception to this is where there is a distinct information repository, such as a phone directory, which should have its own search tool. In this situation, this restricted search should be clearly marked, so as to be clearly distinct from the intranet-wide search.

The intranet search should also cover all relevant documents that are linked to from the intranet, including the full text of the files.

0: There is no single search that covers the entire site, or the default is to search only some sections of the site. Alternatively, there may be multiple search engines that cover different areas of the site, or compete in their coverage.

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5: There is a single search across the entire site, including documents (where relevant). This search also seamlessly searches other technology platforms, where these would be considered by staff to be part of the ‘intranet’.

A ‘synonyms list’ should also be established to ensure that equivalent terms are handled in the same way. For example, searching on ‘bike’ and ‘bicycle’ should return the same results.

0: Searches are case sensitive and common typing or spelling mistakes return no results.

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5: The search handles common typing and spelling mistakes, is not case sensitive and handles synonyms.

This can be assessed by conducting searches on typical terms (such as ‘leave form’) and evaluating the relevance and usefulness of the pages that are returned.

0: Search returns irrelevant or useless results that have no obvious association with the terms entered.

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5: Highly relevant and useful pages are found for all common searches, and there is a clear relation between the pages returned and the search terms. In almost all cases, desired information can be quickly found using the search.

Metadata and tuning of the search engine ‘weightings’ and other configuration options can be used to improve the quality and relevance of search results.

Beyond this, search engine ‘best bets’ can be implemented to guarantee that key information is presented first for common searches. This is a very effective way of ensuring the relevance of results, even as the intranet grows in size.

0: Irrelevant or less-useful results are presented at the top of the search results page. There is no clear ordering according to relevance, or results are ranked according to some other less-useful criteria (such as alphabetical order of titles).

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5: Search results are highly relevant and useful pages are presented within the first few results. Search engine ‘best bets’ have been implemented to ensure that key information is presented first for common searches.

Each search result should include the following:

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  Title of the page/document, displayed as a link
  
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  Meaningful description (precis)
  
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  Relevance as a star rating (1 to 5 stars)
  
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  Type of the file (ideally displayed as an icon)
  
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  Section of the site the file is located in
  

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  Relevance as a percentage
  
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  URL
  
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  Size of the file
  
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  ‘Find similar documents' or equivalent
  

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5: Search results contain just the key information staff require to quickly identify the required page or document. The results are cleanly presented, and are easy to visually scan.

The search results page should include the following:

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  Listing of the search terms used
  
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  Number of matching documents
  
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  Mechanism for browsing through the search results pages
  
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  Field for entering a new search
  
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  Numbered list of search ‘hits’
  

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  Time to run search query
  
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  ‘Search within results’ option
  
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  Other advanced search options
  
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  ‘Hide summaries’ or other options to control how the results are displayed
  
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  Option to change the number of results displayed on each page
  

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5: The search results page is well designed and attractive. Key (and commonly-used) functionality is provided on the page, while irrelevant items have been removed to avoid clutter or unnecessary complexity.

Tailored search solutions should be developed for each group of specialist users, offering customised search and results pages, as well as additional functionality where required.

Examples of specialist search users includes: lawyers needing to find past Court rulings, engineers working with a large collection of maintenance manuals, technical support staff needing to quickly resolve customer issues.

0: There is a single search interface provided for all staff, with no tailored solutions delivered for specialist search users.

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5: Specialist search solutions have been developed to meet the unique needs of individual groups of users.