Search

[michelle-rago]

Tasks

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1. Review existing research
2. Conduct new research if needed
3. Draft standard in Google docs for internal sharing
4. Share draft with stakeholders
5. Research legal viability of exemptions for applications and tools that won't benefit from a site search
6. Conduct usability testing on the standard
7. Revise as needed
8. Decide what the compliance timeline should be
9. Get internal and external approvals to move to pending status

[michelle-rago]

Consider sites have the ability to search sets of content (https://data.census.gov/, https://login.gov/help/) and sites that focus on completing a process (e.g., requesting a .gov) or lookup tools (https://889.smartpay.gsa.gov/) where there would be no benefit to users to add a site search box.

[michelle-rago]

Search guidance from M-23:

"Use on-site search functionality: Agencies’ public-facing websites must contain a
search function that allows users to easily search content intended for public use. This
search function should be a site-wide global search and, when appropriate, could be a
feature-specific search for a subset of the website content that is of significant public interest (e.g., find-a-form tool). Agencies should participate in the Search.gov program by
utilizing Search.gov for on-site search solutions or by integrating search solutions with Search.gov.

• Design search-engine optimized content: Agencies should ensure that publicly
available content (i.e., content that does not require user authentication or sign in) is
designed and structured so it can be effectively crawled and indexed by search engines.
Agencies must not limit which search engines or crawlers can access or archive their
public content. Agencies should employ best practices to improve crawling or indexing
of web content, including using sitemaps, robots.txt files,29 and descriptive metadata in
commonly parsed fields (e.g., meta element tags). "

[evoeges]

Existing research summarized here in google docs. Research database here in airtable.

[juliaelman]

@evoeges @michelle-rago @rphillippi is further research needed to be done prior to moving this to pending?

[rphillippi]

@juliaelman I think it would be good to discuss the comments on discussions before we say yes to moving it forward. I also note that @michelle-rago had left this at usability testing needed on the draft. However it's been sitting in draft for several months and we've not had more discussion on it.

One comment about adding more details around site exceptions is a good one and something we should consider. Might be worth chatting with Search.gov and getting their opinion.

[michelle-rago]

Agree that the comments should be reviewed priori to moving this along. Also, do you want to get more specific re: mobile? On the standard page now we say "On a mobile view, the search function should be outside of the mobile menu or at the top of the mobile menu." This isn't part of the acceptance criteria which is why it's more flexible. Do you think the standard's acceptance criteria should explicitly include mobile?

[rphillippi]

Good reminder about mobile, @michelle-rago. @juliaelman we noticed that the search function was often buried in menus on mobile. So we definitely need to offer more guidance on that.