QA Overview | Yext Hitchhikers Platform

What You’ll Learn

In this section, you will learn:

• Why QAing your search experience is crucial
• An overview of the types of QA
• Search quality QA vs. UI QA

Overview

Getting Yext Search integrated on the site’s main domain is very important so that we can make improvements based on real user data. Part of what makes Yext Search such a valuable product is the real-time search analytics, which tell us what people are searching for and how they engage with the content in the experience. This allows us to make data-driven decisions in order to optimize the search experience.

However, it’s also imperative to QA your search experience thoroughly before integrating with the site’s main domain. We want to ensure that all of the client’s top priority queries are returning optimal results so that we have a strong foundation in place before going live. Post-launch enhancements should consist of smaller incremental improvements such as adding a synonym in the backend, or adding more content to the Knowledge Graph.

There are generally four types of QA you’ll need to complete prior to launch: Browser Testing, Search Quality, UI, and Analytics Testing.

Browser & Device Testing

The first phase of QA requires you to test your search experience on a few different browser types (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.) and make sure the experience performs consistently across each browser that you test. You will be testing different types of devices (Androids, iPhones, tablets, etc.) and various browsers on those devices. For example, you may test in Safari and Google Chrome on an iPhone, or in Google Chrome and Firefox on an Android.

Search Quality

The second phase of QA focuses on the actual search quality of your search experience. You will assess the results that are returned for a given query and the performance of the algorithm itself. For example, after entering a number of queries, you may decide that Menu Item entities should be more prevalent and you want Menu Item results to appear first in Universal search. Or perhaps you want to hide FAQs from appearing when someone searches for Restaurants.

Typically when you get Search Quality feedback, the resolution will entail adjustments to the backend configuration or the Knowledge Graph. If you’re unsure, be sure to search the Hitchhiker Community!

User Interface (UI)

User Interface, or UI, feedback relates to the look and feel of your search experience. Our UX team has done a tremendous amount of research to determine best practices regarding the look of the experience, all of which is reflected in the standard search designs.

Please see below for some points of consideration when QAing the UI of your search experience:

• Does the experience match your website and meet your brand guidelines?
• Is the frontend data displaying as you’d expect it to?

Generally, UI feedback will heavily rely on input from your team and adjustments will be made in the frontend of the search experience. For example, you may want to change the way phone numbers are formatted or change the color of links in the experience. Both of these adjustments would be considered part of UI QA.

Analytics

The fourth type of QA has to do with Analytics. Part of what makes Yext Search such a valuable product is the real-time search analytics that we capture which track what a user searches and how they engage with the content in the search experience. This will ultimately allow you to make data driven adjustments to the experience as they gather more and more information.

Now that you know the main types of QA, the following units will walk you through the specifics to thoroughly conduct QA on your search experience! So you might be wondering, how do I go about QA? And what exactly should I be “QA’ing”….? Great questions! We’ll break this down by the four different types of QA we just covered in the following units.