Context
Intel's search experience served 20M+ queries annually, but the underlying technology wasn't the problem. Coveo, a robust AI-powered platform, already powered the search engine. The issue was organizational fragmentation. Over a decade, different teams had implemented search differently across Intel.com. Marketing prioritized campaigns. Support prioritized recency. Technical docs prioritized exact matches. Same platform, completely inconsistent user experience.
Role & Scope
Role: Senior Product Designer, Design Systems Lead for Digital Experiences at Intel
Platform: Web (responsive), Coveo-powered search across Intel.com
Collaboration: Content owners across marketing, support, product and technical teams
The real challenge wasn't designing a better search interface. It was getting dozens of content owners across business units to agree on what "better" meant, then building a system that worked for all of them.
Design Constraints
Different teams had different priorities: Result layouts, filters and ranking algorithms changed depending on where users searched from. Creating consistency meant challenging established workflows.
Mobile experience was broken: Filters were hidden, pagination didn't work and the interface was essentially unusable on phones. Yet users kept trying to search on mobile.
No reliable success metrics: Average time from search to finding content was 3-4 minutes. Industry benchmark is under 60 seconds. No way to measure how many users gave up entirely.
Accessibility gaps throughout: Audit revealed 47 accessibility issues in Coveo's default components. This excluded screen reader users and keyboard-only navigation.
My Approach
Action-Driven Discovery
Facilitated workshops with content owners across marketing, support, product and technical teams. The goal was establishing a shared definition of what search should mean. Half my time was spent mediating between teams who thought their implementation was correct.
Conversation as Guided Navigation
Analyzed search data and user behavior to design filter categories around what users were actually trying to accomplish, not how Intel's internal teams were structured.
Accessibility from the Foundation
Audited Coveo's components, then partnered directly with their engineers to extend their library. Fixed 47 accessibility issues while maintaining platform compatibility.
Documentation that Scales
Fully spec'd responsive states, filter behaviors and edge cases in Figma. This enabled another team member to produce developer-focused documentation that saved weeks according to the engineering team.
Detailed Results
20M+ annual queries through the unified experience.
~70% faster search-to-click time, dropped from 3-4 minutes to under 60 seconds.
40% increase in mobile search usage after launch (users had been avoiding it because it was broken).
WCAG 2.1 AA compliance achieved across the full experience.
Scalable foundation for AI-powered search features built on solid UX fundamentals.
Ranking improved significantly but isn't perfect. Some high-value content still gets buried due to inconsistent metadata, an ongoing content operations challenge beyond design scope.
Key Takeaways for the Future
Users don't care about your org structure. They don't know marketing and support have different CMS systems. They don't know your company reorganized three times and nobody unified the taxonomy. They just want answers. Design for user intent, not internal politics.
AI-powered search means nothing if fundamentals are broken. Coveo gave us sophisticated ranking algorithms, but they couldn't fix inconsistent metadata, unclear taxonomies or interfaces that excluded screen reader users. Technology is an amplifier, not a solution.
Foundation first, then enhancement. This project succeeded because we fixed the basics—clear information architecture, consistent interface patterns, accessible interactions, all before layering on AI capabilities. The AI makes it better, but the design makes it work.
Detailed documentation prevents costly rework. What seemed like overkill upfront, fully spec'ing every responsive state and edge case, saved weeks during implementation when edge cases inevitably surfaced.
When systems break, teams slow down.
I work across UX, architecture and content to prevent fragmentation and help organizations move faster with confidence.