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Please rewrite Populi's SEARCH functionality!

Wayne Hedlund

December 15, 2016 20:03

Completed

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I, with my team, have consistent difficulty in utilizing the Search feature in Populi. Although the feature is robust in allowing users to search for people, organizations, documents, etc., in my opinion, it does not prioritize the results in a way that is meaningful to the end-user.

There are actually two core issues in this request that are all intermingled.

1. Dropdown results do not prioritize results.
2. There is no way to see more results beyond the first 10-20 in the dropdown.

FIRST, the prioritization of results does not make sense. When I attempt to begin typing a name, like my last name, sometimes I WILL see the record I am searching for, but it will be several records down in the results, even though none of the preceding results match what has been typed. As an example, I just typed the first 4 letters of my last name "hedl" and the following records popped up, in this order: Hutley, Hadley, Heatley, Heidel, Hadley, Hedlund.

Other times, I will not see the results at all until I have typed enough characters for the name. For example, I wanted to find an individual named, "Matthew Bantel" in our database. When I typed "Matthew" none of the records were the relevant record. So I began typing the letters in the last name, starting with "B". Of the 6 results in the dropdown (which there are a ton more Matthew's in the database than 6) only TWO of them actually had a last name or even a middle name that started with the letter B. It is not until I get to "Matthew Ban" that I finally see the person I am searching for in the results.

SECOND, Populi only gives a small number of possible results while typing. If I can't remember a last name, but only a first name, I am totally stuck. I tried typing 'Benjamin' and knew there would be a ton of results, but there was no way for me to weed through the results to find the person I was seeking.

I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST that Populi consider:

• Prioritizing search results by allowing the resulting 'popup' results more accurately match what is being typed in the search field.
• Possibly create a new category in the dropdown results (like People/Organizations/Files) which includes something like "You May Be Looking For" - and put the possible misspelling results there.
• Allow the user to click a button at the bottom that says, "View All Results" so we can at least see the rest of the results not showing up OR
• OR allow the search results to include a vertical drag bar to allow the user to scroll through up to perhaps 100 results.

Thank you for your time and attention to this request.

Wayne

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19 comments

• 
  Adam Sentz November 08, 2019 22:59 Official comment

  Populi's brand new, completely rewritten search engine has been released.

  Edited by Adam Sentz December 13, 2019 18:04
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  Adam Sentz December 15, 2016 20:16

  @Wayne - Thanks for the feedback! In the first two examples you mention the problem seems to be that there are too many matches when you type only part of a name, or a common first name opposed to a less common last name. You should get better results if you search for hedlund instead of hedl, or if you searched for Bantel instead of Matthew. 

  Regarding the issue of what to do when the only piece of info you have to search on is a common name like Benjamin, you're right that we can do better. 

  We have some ideas for how to improve Search, and we look forward to your feedback when we are able to implement them.

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  Wayne Hedlund December 15, 2016 21:07

  Hi Adam.
  
  I disagree with how it should process 'hedl'. Why do I have to type the whole last name before the results show up in order? Why can't it start when I type 'h' with all the 'h' results, maybe even alphabetically or something. Then I type 'he' and it shows all of the results that start with 'he' like "headly, heath, hedlund". Then I type the next letter resulting in "hed" and the first result should be "Hedlund". Why do I have to first of all know and second type the full name?
  
  The same holds true with Matthew Bantel. At the minimum it seems the results should make sense as I type. For example, when I type "Matthew" why would people with a middle name of Matthew trump people with a first or last name of Matthew? Most Populi users won't search by Middle name.
  
  Moreso, when I type "Matthew b" why would "Austin Matthew Harris" be the second option in my results? He doesn't even have a 'b' in his name at all. 
  
  The requirement seems to be that I have to type 8, 10 or more characters before I get results that work and it just seems that is not industry standard for search results in today's age.
  
  Also, I've mentioned this several times in my 11 month tenure using Populi, but is it possible to get a timeline on when it might get prioritized?
  
  Thank you for your help.
  
  Wayne

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  Adam Sentz December 15, 2016 22:00

  @Wayne - I think I understand how you would like Search to work in Populi. Thanks for your clear feedback.

  It looks like in the two instances where people with the middle name Matthew are highly ranked that they both also have a preferred name of Matthew. Like I wrote, you'll probably have a better time searching for less common last names than you will with common first names (if you only want to type one).

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  Chris Langford January 03, 2017 19:54

  Adam,  

  I must agree with Wayne.  Search does no work as I expect in Populi.  If I type, to use his example, "Matthew B", I would expect to see everyone whose first name is Matthew and last name begins with "B" at the top of the list.

  I want the system to put exact matches first, followed by fuzzier matches.  It's frustrating when I'm typing a name exactly, and other names that do not match appear instead of the one I'm typing.  This forces me to keep typing beyond where I should have to compared to systems that work as they should.  I know it's probably not at the top of your list, but if there's a way to have exact matches appear first, that would be preferable to me, and apparently at least one other person.

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  Sam Horowitz January 07, 2017 14:53

  You are all assuming, it seems, that the only thing being searched for are name fields, but I know from our usage that is not true. Just something to think about.

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  Wayne Hedlund January 07, 2017 16:15

  Hi Sam. That isn't true at all - I am not making that assumption. I search Populi for other things as well. I spend many hours each week in Populi - both as the Admissions Director and faculty. However, I am very confident that the majority of users of Populi use the search feature to find PEOPLE more than anything else.

  People make up the primary data unit for Populi. Nearly all other data is related to those people (grades, files, activities, etc.) Also, it is a best practice within database search functionality to be able to search by first and/or last name before other criteria. I was a database programmer for many years.
  
  Additionally, even if what you're suggesting is true, it does not negate the issue where the results within the 'Name' category do not show up in the order we would expect.

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  Sam Horowitz January 07, 2017 16:49

  Of course people are the primary unit, but you can search by fields other than names. My point is that this isn't obvious, especially whe. We are quibbling over what to return with 3 letters typed.

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  Wayne Hedlund January 07, 2017 17:11

  Sam. I'm not quibbling over 3 letters. I have spent as much as 10 minutes trying to find a person via other means because the search feature won't return the list in alpha order and will only show me 10-15 results at most. We have thousands of people in our database. As I mentioned above in my original post, it wasn't until I typed "Matthew Ban" before I could get to "Matthew Bantel". 
  
  What if I only remember that his last name begins with B but nothing else? I'm totally stuck. And it seems very inefficient to have to type the entire name and a good portion of the last name before I can find the person in my results.

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  Sam Horowitz January 07, 2017 17:50

  I am not saying Search is completely fine as-is. I'm only saying, please let's consider that people have differing expectations because they use the search field for more than just proper names of individuals. Example with your data: Matthew Jones who works at Bartram UMC is not an entirely unexpected result for us if we type "Matthew B" or even "Matthew Bant" (because sometimes notes get down hastily, right?).

  Anyway, a "view all results" would be most welcome. Other improvements are probably necessary. I don't disagree with the premise of your post. I'm asking for consideration in the details, including that there is a broader use of the search field than just the one you described. 

   

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  Traci Morris January 09, 2017 15:59

  I have had issues with the search feature on Populi.  I can have a name typed in exactly as it appears in Populi, and it will not appear in the search or be way down on the list even though it is the one that matches exactly to what I typed.

   

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  Sam Horowitz January 09, 2017 16:06

  Submit a support request with what you typed, what came up, and what you expected (screenshots probably help, too). When we have had issues like that, we have often been able to get them resolved through Support.

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  Adam Sentz January 09, 2017 17:53

  @Wayne - We tweaked search indexing last week and Matthew Bantel appears when you type "Matthew B" now. 

  @Traci - Please send us those examples as they come up. Because of the way search ranking works we can't guarantee that and exact name match won't be outranked by a record with more fields (that you don't see in the name result) matching the search string, but if it's not in the results at all we'd definitely like to see if we can do something about it. Like I said we adjusted the indexing last week so maybe that will help with your issues as well.

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  Douglas Lewis October 12, 2017 21:45

  Having read the post and the comments, I agree with Wayne on both points.  The first is a recurring theme in the meetings our institutional staff have on Populi.  An example: out of curiosity, I typed 'hedl' in our search box.  The results gave me a couple of individuals with the first name 'Hedley'---makes sense--then last names like 'Hadley,' 'Hodel', 'Huhtala' (!) before getting to the first 'Hedlund', i.e. the first exact match.  What's odder is that there were several Hedlunds down the list, but they were separated by names like another 'Hadley,' 'Hottle,' and 'Hodiwala.'  I think the search engine should first come up with exact matches for the string ('Hedley,' 'Hedlund'), then matches with the letters separated ('Headley') or in different order ('Helady'), then partial matches ('Headache') and shade off into the exotics ('Huhtala'--of course, that does include two of the four letters) at the end. 

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  Adam Sentz October 12, 2017 22:06

  @Douglas - If you're searching for people with the last name Hedlund, you'll get much better results if you type Hedlund than if you type hedl. A point of clarification: Hedlund is not an exact match for hedl. In all likelihood you have no exact matches for hedl (unless maybe you have a course in your catalog called HEDL - no idea what that would be), so you're asking Populi to guess what you mean. Our search indexing does contain partial name strings, but the shorter the partial string you feed it the worse the guesses are going to be.

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  Douglas Lewis October 12, 2017 22:28

  Adam, you're right.  Inexact phrasing on my part.  What I meant by 'exact match' was names/words where the letters appear in the same order and all together (i.e. 'hedl' brings up 'Hedley' and 'Hedlund' before 'Hadley' and 'Headly').

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  James October 31, 2019 19:07

  Hi all,

  Thanks for all your feedback!  Over the last several months, we've completely rewritten search and will be releasing it in beta soon.  If you would like to request that your school be part of the beta, please post here and we'll enable it for your school as soon as it's released (and if there are problems with the beta, we can always flip you back to the old search until we iron out the kinks).  And after the beta gets to a point where we're happy with it, we'll be rolling new search out for everyone!

  Cheers,

  James

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  Douglas Lewis November 05, 2019 20:12

  We would like to be part of the beta testing.  Thanks.

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  Adam Sentz November 05, 2019 20:13

  Douglas Lewis Great, we'll add you to the list.