Optimizing the Journal Search Platform
Improving speed, focus, and accuracy for finding relevant journal information
Optimizing the Journal Search Platform
Improving speed, focus, and accuracy for finding relevant journal information
My Roles
Product lead, UX/UI, research, project management, QA, frontend development
Team
Designer (me), 2 developers, CTO
Tools
Figma, Azure, TailwindCSS, Vue, ECharts
Year
2022
My Roles
Product lead, UX/UI, research, project management, QA, frontend development
Team
Designer (me), 2 developers, CTO
Tools
Figma, Azure, TailwindCSS, Vue, ECharts
Year
2022
Problem
Journalytics users struggled to find relevant scholarly journals. Inaccurate data, slow load times, confusing information architecture, and unclear visualizations made search results frustrating and inefficient.
Solution
We completely rehauled the search functionality and information architecture, creating a more intuitive experience that aligned with user intent and easier discovery of relevant journals.
Data visualizations were redesigned to be clear and informative, allowing users to understand journal metrics at a glance. We chose appropriate ones based on the metric’s complexity. Text worked for basic datasets, while charts like heatmaps, polar charts, and historical line graphs were built with customized libraries (like Apache ECharts) to show relationships and trends.
Using Azure, we implemented advanced search algorithms for filtering options and adjusted weighting to prioritize relevant results based on user queries. We collaborated with engineers and data providers to better integrate third-party data sources (like Altmetrics) and highlight in-house metrics relevant to journal evaluation (like CCI and MedSCI). This included fixing API connections and reworking data import and matching workflows.
Finally, we upgraded the platform to a Single Page Application (SPA) framework using Angular—then Vue.js, resulting in faster and more dynamic page loads.
Impact
The overhaul delivered a faster, more user-friendly experience with faster page loads. Users could now discover relevant journals with greater ease and efficiency thanks to the improved search functionality.
Reduced manual effort for data maintenance freed up valuable time for engineers. Data accuracy and completeness increased, leading to more reliable results for users.