GWI · Global search
The search that unlocked a platform migration
GWI’s new platform had disrupted familiar workflows, leaving major clients unwilling to move. I expanded a brief for a homepage search bar into a platform-wide tool for finding, previewing and using data. Its launch enabled GWI to migrate the remaining clients and retire platform 1.
My role
I led the UX from discovery through launch, working with a product manager and a senior UI designer. My work covered product direction, stakeholder alignment, discovery, user flows, initial wireframes and iterative testing.
Delivery
The core search experience shipped and remains in use today.
The search experience
Tabs organise content types beneath the search bar. Filters narrow the data, while results and preview sit side by side.
The search experience
Tabs organise content types beneath the search bar. Filters narrow the data, while results and preview sit side by side.
01
A new platform had disrupted familiar workflows
Some major clients, including Google, refused to migrate to platform 2 because it disrupted how they worked. The previous platform had let people preview questions as charts. The new platform had lost that capability.
Users were adding questions to their charts, inspecting the results and removing them again if the data was not useful. They had to change their work just to decide what belonged in it.
Discovery revealed a wider problem. GWI had around 40,000 attributes, but its attribute browser presented detached answers, confusing hierarchies and repeated category names. One example contained 211 categories labelled “demographics”. A stakeholder had stopped using its search in client demonstrations because it made showcasing the data difficult.
The platform needed to make the value of GWI’s data easier to see, as well as restore a useful workflow.
01
A new platform had disrupted familiar workflows
Some major clients, including Google, refused to migrate to platform 2 because it disrupted how they worked. The previous platform had let people preview questions as charts. The new platform had lost that capability.
Users were adding questions to their charts, inspecting the results and removing them again if the data was not useful. They had to change their work just to decide what belonged in it.
Discovery revealed a wider problem. GWI had around 40,000 attributes, but its attribute browser presented detached answers, confusing hierarchies and repeated category names. One example contained 211 categories labelled “demographics”. A stakeholder had stopped using its search in client demonstrations because it made showcasing the data difficult.
The platform needed to make the value of GWI’s data easier to see, as well as restore a useful workflow.
02
Search without leaving your work
I conducted most of the discovery interviews with seven colleagues across Customer Success, Research and Technology. Alongside the interviews, a feature-prioritisation exercise showed that adding questions and attributes to content mattered as much as finding them.
That gave me a clear reason to challenge the homepage-only brief. People needed data while working in charts, crosstabs, dashboards and audiences, not just when starting a session. I designed search as an overlay they could open from anywhere in the platform without leaving their work.
I mapped the journeys and created the initial wireframes around a complete task: find something, assess it and put it to use.
02
Search without leaving your work
I conducted most of the discovery interviews with seven colleagues across Customer Success, Research and Technology. Alongside the interviews, a feature-prioritisation exercise showed that adding questions and attributes to content mattered as much as finding them.
That gave me a clear reason to challenge the homepage-only brief. People needed data while working in charts, crosstabs, dashboards and audiences, not just when starting a session. I designed search as an overlay they could open from anywhere in the platform without leaving their work.
I mapped the journeys and created the initial wireframes around a complete task: find something, assess it and put it to use.
Mapping the wider search
The original flow connects different result types to previewing, filtering and the next task. Enlarge it to follow the branches.
Mapping the wider search
The original flow connects different result types to previewing, filtering and the next task. Enlarge it to follow the branches.
03
A bigger ambition, delivered in manageable parts
To get stakeholders behind the expanded scope, I took a modular approach. Tabs beneath the search bar separated survey questions, charts, audiences, crosstabs, dashboards and Insights, GWI’s name for its blog posts. Each content type had a place within a shared search experience.
Filters helped people narrow the data to what mattered: the datasets their organisation could access, waves of fresh data released quarterly, and locations by country.
The same approach applied to destinations. Adding a question to the current file, another existing file or something new could be introduced in phases. We could agree the broader direction without making every capability a condition of the first release.
This was how I designed the experience to scale: leave room for more content and actions while giving people a consistent way to search.
03
A bigger ambition, delivered in manageable parts
To get stakeholders behind the expanded scope, I took a modular approach. Tabs beneath the search bar separated survey questions, charts, audiences, crosstabs, dashboards and Insights, GWI’s name for its blog posts. Each content type had a place within a shared search experience.
Filters helped people narrow the data to what mattered: the datasets their organisation could access, waves of fresh data released quarterly, and locations by country.
The same approach applied to destinations. Adding a question to the current file, another existing file or something new could be introduced in phases. We could agree the broader direction without making every capability a condition of the first release.
This was how I designed the experience to scale: leave room for more content and actions while giving people a consistent way to search.
A shared structure, different content
Insights, GWI’s blog content, has its own categories and result presentation within the shared search experience.
A shared structure, different content
Insights, GWI’s blog content, has its own categories and result presentation within the shared search experience.
04
Judge the data before committing to it
The preview addressed the add-and-remove cycle directly. A matching question did not tell someone whether its answers would be useful. Bringing results and preview together let people assess the data before adding it to their work.
I prioritised questions and their answers over category folders, keeping the category path as context. People could inspect the available answers and check where and when the data had been collected. I also explored bar-chart previews to make the shape of the data visible inside search.
During testing, a participant connected preview directly to their willingness to switch platforms:
“I would do all my searches in P2 if we had that [preview] because I can preview things”
Research participant, prototype testing.
04
Judge the data before committing to it
The preview addressed the add-and-remove cycle directly. A matching question did not tell someone whether its answers would be useful. Bringing results and preview together let people assess the data before adding it to their work.
I prioritised questions and their answers over category folders, keeping the category path as context. People could inspect the available answers and check where and when the data had been collected. I also explored bar-chart previews to make the shape of the data visible inside search.
During testing, a participant connected preview directly to their willingness to switch platforms:
“I would do all my searches in P2 if we had that [preview] because I can preview things”
Research participant, prototype testing.
Design concept / Preview and selection
An exploration of answer selection, metadata and the shape of the data.
Design concept / Bar-chart preview
A separate chart-preview exploration, not the final UI shown below.
Design concept / Preview and selection
An exploration of answer selection, metadata and the shape of the data.
Design concept / Bar-chart preview
A separate chart-preview exploration, not the final UI shown below.
Answer selection and coverage
The preview separates answer selection from data coverage. These are two separate design examples.
05
Put the result where it is useful
I designed the next step around where the data was needed. A question could go into the file already open, an existing chart, crosstab, dashboard or audience, or a new one.
Early engineering discussions focused the first version on creating new content, with existing-file and crosstab destinations requiring further work. The “Add to” example shows that smaller set of actions within the wider design.
I also challenged the idea that fewer clicks alone meant a better experience. Previewing and selecting data added steps, but helped people make an informed choice before changing their work.
05
Put the result where it is useful
I designed the next step around where the data was needed. A question could go into the file already open, an existing chart, crosstab, dashboard or audience, or a new one.
Early engineering discussions focused the first version on creating new content, with existing-file and crosstab destinations requiring further work. The “Add to” example shows that smaller set of actions within the wider design.
I also challenged the idea that fewer clicks alone meant a better experience. Previewing and selecting data added steps, but helped people make an informed choice before changing their work.
From selection to creation
Selected answers lead into an “Add to” menu for a new chart, audience or dashboard. The design connects finding data with creating something from it.
06
Test the journey, then refine the detail
The senior UI designer and I tested prototypes through two rounds, including sessions with clients and first-time users. An internal prototype study supplemented the later interviews.
People valued preview, but choosing a result still required work. Crowded results competed for attention, and shortened category paths hid context people needed. We recommended clearer hierarchy, more space between results and full category paths.
Testing also exposed expectations behind the controls. People expected filters to change the preview, and “Add to chart” could mean adding to an existing chart rather than creating a new one. These findings helped us identify where the interface needed to make its behaviour clearer.
The direction was useful; the details needed to make that usefulness accessible.
06
Test the journey, then refine the detail
The senior UI designer and I tested prototypes through two rounds, including sessions with clients and first-time users. An internal prototype study supplemented the later interviews.
People valued preview, but choosing a result still required work. Crowded results competed for attention, and shortened category paths hid context people needed. We recommended clearer hierarchy, more space between results and full category paths.
Testing also exposed expectations behind the controls. People expected filters to change the preview, and “Add to chart” could mean adding to an existing chart rather than creating a new one. These findings helped us identify where the interface needed to make its behaviour clearer.
The direction was useful; the details needed to make that usefulness accessible.
07 / The outcome
The launch enabled GWI to migrate the remaining clients to platform 2 and retire platform 1.
What began as a homepage search bar became a way to find, evaluate and use data across the platform. The search experience remains in use today.
My contribution was to expand the ambition and make it deliverable: a modular experience that could grow in stages, grounded in the workflows people needed to keep.
07 / The outcome
The launch enabled GWI to migrate the remaining clients to platform 2 and retire platform 1.
What began as a homepage search bar became a way to find, evaluate and use data across the platform. The search experience remains in use today.
My contribution was to expand the ambition and make it deliverable: a modular experience that could grow in stages, grounded in the workflows people needed to keep.
07 / The outcome
The launch enabled GWI to migrate the remaining clients to platform 2 and retire platform 1.
What began as a homepage search bar became a way to find, evaluate and use data across the platform. The search experience remains in use today.
My contribution was to expand the ambition and make it deliverable: a modular experience that could grow in stages, grounded in the workflows people needed to keep.