Desire for improved search drives Children’s Health digital team to redesign entire website

The only thing worse than visiting a website without a site search function is using search on a site and not finding what you are looking for. At Children’s Health, the eighth-largest pediatric healthcare provider in the U.S., more than 3 million people visit the website each year. They did not have a world-class experience. Search results were poor and often produced zero results. The search function was even worse in its mobile incarnation, a problem since 65% of all searches were happening over a mobile phone.

The digital team outlined 11 objectives for a site overhaul that was centered on a great search experience. The team started out with user testing, which helped pinpoint user frustrations and desires. That led the team to adopt solutions that would resonate with those users. The team compared its site to a those of several top-tier hospitals on 11 major search functions and found it was the only hospital to achieve positive results in every category.