Yext Search
Next-generation site search with AI and natural language processing
Yext's core business when I joined the company was centered around retail location data services. Given the highly structured authoritative data sources available for individual brands and their products, in partnership with product management, I recognized a unique opportunity. We explored methods to expand Yext’s core business from centralized data and synchronization services to a general purpose knowledge graph and intelligent search solution. I led the design effort to rethink how the company could pivot the business to include natural language and AI-powered search on brand sites. Expanding my team's work from enterprise-focused user interfaces to consumer-focused search experiences was a particularly fun UX challenge. Ultimately, we seized the opportunity to bring consumer awareness to the Yext brand.
ROLE
Hands-on Designer, Product Innovator, Product Design & Strategy VP
SCOPE
Product Strategy, Product Design, User Research, Innovation with Partners
AUDIENCE
Consumers, B2B Clients, Developers
PROBLEM
Over the last decade, search engines have evolved and improved dramatically, and along with them, so have consumer's expectations. Gone are the days of only inputting a few keywords and digging through page after page of blue links. Questions can be posed in natural language, and relevant answers are presented immediately on the first result page. But brand websites have not evolved. Consumers have grown to mistrust site search options on a brand's site, and resort to Google or Bing to search instead.
STRATEGY
Teaming with product management, we conceptualized the idea of Yext search as an opportunity to improve the consumer brand-site search experience. After pitching the concept to the Founder CEO, a small pirate team was assembled, and I led the design to create a proof of concept of the offering. The design challenges were: What should the out-of-box end-user experience for a modern search solution on a brand's website feel like? How do we allow for enough design flexibility so that when added to a brand website, it feels like a natural extension of their unique design style?
SOLUTION
Yext Search is a modern, federated website search solution that allows consumers to quickly find relevant information about a brand directly from the brand’s homepage. It is powered by Yext's Knowledge Graph where a brand's facts are centrally stored in the cloud.
In addition to providing an intuitive end-user experience, Yext Search also provides our clients with insights into what consumers on their website are seeking to understand. Using this data, we designed an analytics portal for surfacing actionable insights as well as recommendations on what content or FAQs a brand may want to consider adding to their site to reduce live calls.
The analytics dashboard for Yext Search allows clients to easily see how much traffic their search is getting, and what kinds of questions people are asking.
RESULTS
Yext leadership recognized the immense opportunity presented by our newly defined Yext Search and chose to shift the company direction. The majority of the company resources were transitioned to accelerate development of Yext Search and to define new sales models for the offering.
Samsung, Slack, Cox, Campbell's, Subway and Verizon were among the first brands to adopt the search abilities. Yext Search is now the company’s flagship product and is used by millions of end users each day.
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