Develop Sprint

If you have a tailored search application in use, we can help you add features to satisfy additional information needs in a develop sprint. Together we define exactly what your various search tasks entail, explore different ways to solve them, prototype the most promising ideas, have users test the new features and finally incorporate them in your existing application.

In a develop sprint we can expand the three different parts of your application as necessary: we can connect extra data sources to your knowledge graph, adjust existing search algorithms or create additional ones or we can think along in adapting the user interface. We do this in an agile fashion:

Understand

Empathize

Since you already have a search application in use, we assume that you have a good understanding of your users, their context and the search problems they encounter in their work. We further assume that you have a backlog that is filled with search tasks that have surfaced during a previous design sprint or that have come to light while using the application. During the develop sprint, the most urgent of these search tasks are realized.

Define

For each search task we determine whether the knowledge graph should be expanded with new concepts and relations, what aspects of these new concepts (and already existing concepts) determine their relevance and whether the additional concepts should be taken into account by existing search algorithms.

Explore

Ideate

We now start ideating: we sketch how any newly identified concepts could relate to the ones that were identified before, we delineate how existing algorithms can be adjusted, write down how new ones should function by specifying the input, the output and a high-level description of their operation and we sketch wireframes of all related interactions.

Prototype

We select the most promising ideas and expand the already existing parts with them: we add new data or knowledge to your graph, adjust existing search strategies or create additional ones and we bring your user interface in line with the newly developed functionality.

Materialize

Test

Once the new features have been added it's time to turn to your users and let them test your upgraded application. We think it's good practice to always run a (small) usability test before going live with new functionality, to make sure you include easy improvements and don't introduce easily avoidable issues. Many small tests make great applications.

Implement

We improve the new features based on the usability test and then we deploy them. This is a relatively quick process since the previously designed search strategies do not need to be coded. Spinque Desk thus enables you to design your search application.

Search features can be developed alongside other features or can make up an entire sprint. Working in sprints enables you to quickly add features that satisfy additional information needs and to respond to emerging requirements.