Search Redesign
Designed and shipped structured search with keyboard-driven tab completion for a complex internal product.
Context
I designed the search feature as part of a broader product redesign. The product managed thousands of records, but users needed specific identifiers to find anything. There was no way to browse, filter, or discover relevant records.
Competitive Survey
I surveyed how other products handle structured search to ground our design conversations in concrete references.
Freeform text auto-converts to structured key/value pairs.
Freeform text with structured modifiers (from:@user, in:#channel). Tab completion on keys.
Tab-complete suggestions with instant results. Structured filters secondary to freeform.
Design Decision
Structured key/value pairs with tab completion, layered on freeform text. Ghost text followed by a colon signals recognized keywords without requiring structure.
The interaction: type a keyword, hit Tab, and the input converts into a key/value pair with autocomplete suggestions. Multiple pairs combine freely.
Process
Led design reviews and iterated on the "tab" affordance based on stakeholder feedback. Reviewed PRs, contributed implementation work (debounce, loading skeletons, tab-completion hook), and helped ship to production.
What I Learned
The competitive survey drove the direction for the entire feature and gave the team a shared vocabulary for design decisions.