Improving site search for Brooks Equipment

Search That Fell Short

CLIENT
Brooks Equipment
CHALLENGE
Improve outdated site search functionality to better serve users and surface key content types
AUDIENCE
Sales teams, current customers, prospective buyers
ROLE
UX strategy, user flow design, content modeling, client collaboration
OUTCOME
A redesigned, search-first experience featuring autocomplete, filters, pinned results, and smarter content prioritization
VIEW IT IN ACTION

Brooks Equipment’s search experience was underutilized, difficult to navigate, and didn’t reflect the real needs of its users — especially customers looking for specific SKUs or sales reps needing product documents quickly.

  • Improve search functionality and relevance
  • Pin high-value product pages
  • Prioritize content by publish date
  • Support sales workflows for faster access to technical documents

Understanding the users and content landscape

We analyzed analytics to identify search behavior and found most users searched by product type or SKU, indicating a clear intent and familiarity with the catalog. This reinforces the need for a fast, accurate search experience with strong filtering.The experience was also heavily desktop-driven, suggesting users are likely working in professional settings where they need detailed information and tools better suited to larger screens.

Design Improvements

We made the search bar more visible by placing it in the header, added clear labeling, and introduced visual structure to improve scanability on the results page.

UX Ehancements

To reduce friction, we implemented autocomplete, filtering, and typo-tolerance so users could find relevant content more quickly—even when their input wasn't perfect.

SEO & Analytics Alignment

We improved metadata for key pages, ensured internal search results weren’t indexed by search engines, and used analytics insights to guide ongoing refinements.

Clarity by design

Strategic UX and scalable structure for a global brand refresh.

Let’s work together