# Design a site search people can actually use

A search experience plan covering what to index, ranking, filters, zero-results handling, technology options, and metrics.

- Topic: Product & UX Design
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Advanced
- Tags: Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/design-a-site-search-people-can-actually-use

## Prompt

```text
Help me design the search feature for my website or app.

**What users search for:** [e.g. products, articles, templates, help docs]
**Content size and structure:** [number of items, fields such as title, tags, category, body]
**Who searches and why:** [main user goals]
**Current problems (if any):** [e.g. no results for typos, irrelevant ranking, slow]
**Tech stack and budget:** [framework, database, hosting; open to hosted search services or not]

Cover:
1. **What to index** - which fields, their weight in ranking (title > tags > body, for example), and what to exclude.
2. **Matching** - typo tolerance, synonyms, stemming, partial words, multi-language needs.
3. **Ranking** - relevance signals plus business signals (popularity, recency, quality) and how to balance them.
4. **Interface** - search box placement, autocomplete and suggestions, filters/facets that match how users think, sort options, result snippets with highlighted terms, mobile behavior, keyboard and screen-reader access.
5. **Zero and poor results** - spelling suggestions, related items, a way to tell us what they wanted.
6. **Technology options** - database full-text search vs. a search library vs. a hosted search service: pros, cons, and when each fits my size and budget.
7. **Performance and privacy** - response time target, caching, rate limiting, input sanitization, and what search query data I log and how long I keep it.
8. **Metrics** - search usage, zero-result rate, click-through on results, refinements, exits after search; and a list of top queries to review monthly.

Return a prioritized build plan: version 1 (simple and good), then improvements.
```

## What to fill in

- e.g. products, articles, templates, help docs
- number of items, fields such as title, tags, category, body
- main user goals
- e.g. no results for typos, irrelevant ranking, slow

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.