Improving Navigational Search in a Web-Based Business Application

Abstract: Using search to navigate an application could sometimes be a more efficient way than browsing. This does however require the implementation of the search to be satisfactory for a user not to abandon it. This thesis focused on improving a keyword-only solution by studying how users construct navigational queries and implementing a new search that intelligently interprets the users' search and better understands the business application. Both search implementations were then evaluated by their ability to return the relevant page. The results showed that the new search modeled to the business application did manage to perform better with a higher retrieval success rate and more frequently returned the desired page closer to the first position in the result set.