Site Search
Transforming search from a broken utility into a core navigation tool
Lead UX Designer | interactive investor | 2026
Problem
Users expected to use the search to navigate the platform, but the existing experience was limited, inconsistent, and failed to return relevant results—driving frustration and support dependency.
Solution
Designed and delivered a scalable global search experience aligned with user intent, industry standards, and content architecture.
Impact
Improved content discoverability, reduced user frustration, and enabled users to self-serve critical information.
Overview
The public website receives thousands of views a day, acting as the primary entry point for Investments (stock, shares and ETF) pages.
Challenge
User Problem
Users expected search to help them navigate the site, answer key financial questions and surface relevant products and content
Instead, they experienced dead ends, Irrelevant results and high effort to find basic information
Business Problem
Poor search → lost engagement + trust
Increased customer support costs
Reduced ability to surface key products/content
Constraint
This was initially low priority compared to revenue-driving features.
Discovery
Behavioural Insight
Users were already using search as a global navigation tool even though it wasn’t designed for that. No support for natural language queries.
Approach
Lean, Outcome-Focused Delivery
We aligned with Product and Engineering to run a focused design sprint, define a clear MVP scope and prioritise impact over completeness.
Principles
Match industry-standard search expectations
Design for intent, not exact match
Enable self-service over support dependency
Ensure accessibility and clarity
Solution
Global Search Experience to include Investments, Products & Guide, News & Help content.
Improved Relevance with structured results around user intent and aligned content naming with search behaviour.
Validated
Through unmoderated testing, we were able to be reassured that customers would be able to find key information, have Clarity of the type of results and be aligned with user expectations.
Delivery & Iteration
Initial rollout monitored performance and engagement.
Iteration
Introduced AI-driven result ranking to improve relevance for imperfect and intent-based queries
Business success metrics
Learnings
Search is a core navigation system, not a feature
Designing for intent significantly improves usability
Behaviour change requires visibility and education
High-impact improvements can be delivered through lean execution
Reflection
This project transformed search from a limited tool into a core platform capability, better aligned with user needs and business goals.
It reinforced the importance of designing for real user behaviour, balancing constraints with impact and delivering measurable improvements at scale.