Overview

As Follett Software expanded its suite of educational products and services, users increasingly needed access to information that existed across multiple databases, systems, and content environments.

Depending on subscription level, a user could be searching across three to five databases containing books, eBooks, audiobooks, research articles, videos, curriculum materials, web resources, and other related educational content.

The goal of Follett Universal Search was to bring those separate experiences together into a single, cohesive search interface that felt intuitive regardless of where the information originated.

Challenge & Opportunity

The technical challenge was significant, but the organizational challenge proved just as important. Multiple search engines, data structures, product groups, and stakeholders all had different expectations around how information should be presented, ranked, organized, and owned.

Ownership became the largest point of disagreement. Each group had a vested interest in how its content appeared and how much prominence it received within the experience.

The opportunity was to shift the conversation away from internal ownership and toward user need: helping students, teachers, librarians, and administrators find the right content quickly and confidently.

My Contribution

I served as Lead UX Designer and Lead Front-End Designer for the initiative, helping establish the experience direction, visual hierarchy, interface layout, and front-end foundation.

• Led UX direction and interface design
• Established information hierarchy and page organization
• Helped define how search results should be presented across multiple content types
• Created front-end HTML and CSS
• Collaborated with development, architecture, product, sales, leadership, and external stakeholders
• Helped align competing stakeholder expectations around a single product experience

Key Design Decision

One of the most important decisions involved creating a clear organizational framework that could accommodate many different types of content without overwhelming users.

Rather than emphasizing the source or internal ownership of the content, the experience prioritized the user’s task. Consistent layouts, predictable information placement, and a unified visual language helped reduce cognitive load and created a more seamless discovery experience.

The final solution worked because it felt easy to use. Users did not need to understand the complexity behind the search experience. They simply needed the interface to feel intuitive, predictable, and useful.

Accessibility Considerations

This project predated many of today’s accessibility requirements, but care was still taken to support clear typography, color contrast, and general legibility.

If revisiting the project today, I would expand accessibility considerations to include deeper WCAG review, keyboard interaction patterns, screen reader support, and more formal responsive accessibility validation.

Technical Contribution

In addition to leading UX and interface direction, I contributed directly to front-end implementation through HTML and CSS.

This helped keep design intent closely connected to implementation realities and technical constraints, especially as the experience needed to support multiple content types and search behaviors.

Outcome

The resulting experience performed well in usability studies and received positive customer feedback. Internally, leadership believed the project helped Follett stand out more clearly within the education technology market.

Its success came from ease of use, intuitive interface structure, and the ability to simplify a complex discovery process for users who did not need to understand the technical systems behind it.

Long-Term Influence

Follett Universal Search influenced later product efforts across the Follett ecosystem, including Follett Destiny, Destiny Discover, eFairs, and search and advanced search patterns within the Help Desk platform.

The project helped establish a foundation for how Follett could present complex, multi-source information in a more unified and user-centered way.

Reflection

Looking back, I would spend more time addressing modern accessibility needs from the earliest stages of the project.

I would also explore theme-based customization so schools and institutions could adapt selected branding elements while maintaining the consistency of the core experience.

The most valuable lesson was that successful search experiences are not only about retrieving information. They are about organizing complexity in a way that feels simple, trustworthy, and useful to the person searching.