Search through the Userlane Assistant

If you offer your users a lot of content, finding what they're looking for can sometimes be difficult or time-consuming. That's why we developed the Userlane Search! Your users can quickly search content directly from the Userlane Assistant.

The Search feature in the Userlane Assistant can be connected to an integration with a knowledge base or other enterprise system. We currently offer integrations with Confluence, Zendesk, and KnowledgeOwl.

✅  Through our own integration with KnowledgeOwl, you can easily search and read our help articles directly from your Userlane Assistant! 

How it works

Once Search is enabled, users can simply click the Search icon in the Assistant and type a query in the Search input field.

If you have an account with us and you are based in Europe you can ⇨ Start this Guide to learn how to enable Search for your users. Or  ⇨ Start this Guide if you are based in the US. 

Userlane Search applies queries to the following: 

Interactive Guides
  1. Chapter title

  2. Chapter subtitle

  3. The title of the Guide (viewable in the Userlane Portal)

  4. The subtitle of the Guide (viewable in the Userlane Portal)

Inside a guide:

  1. Intro/Outro Title

  2. Step title

  3. Text and content of a step

  4. Infobox content

  5. Link title

  6. Link description

  7. Content of specific value-inputs

Announcements
  1. The public title of the Announcement

  2. The message

  3. The text of the button of the primary link

  4. The text of the button of the secondary link

Documents
  1. The page title of the document

  2. The body text of the document

How are search results included and ranked?

Now that we know which content types can be found through the Userlane Search, let's talk about how Search structures the results. 

What's included

The Userlane Search ensures that only accessible content is shown in the search results. What do we mean by accessible content? 

Guides

  • Only show active Guides in active chapters

  • Only show Guides that match user segmentation

  • Only show Guides that match page segmentation 

  • Only show Guides in the language of the user or with a fallback language

Announcements

  • Only show Announcements active at the time of searching

  • Only show Announcements that match user segmentation

  • Only show Announcements that match page segmentation

  • Only show Announcements in the language of the user or with a fallback language

Documents

  • Documents searched through an integration with a knowledge base are accessible based on the permission settings for the connected instance. 

Ranking 

Userlane Search ranks according to Term Frequency / Inverse Document Frequency

Term Frequency

e.g. searching “user” ranks a tutorial that contains the word “user” five times, higher than a tutorial that contains “user” only once.

Inverse Document Frequency

e.g. searching “user” ranks a short announcement that contains only 10 words, one of which is “user”, higher than a long tutorial that contains twenty steps, one of which contains the word “user” once. 

Content filters

If results include more than one content type, users can select content filters to refine their results to specific types (Guides, Announcements, and documents). A maximum of 50 results is displayed. 

Customize content filter labels

You can customize the default filter label texts from the Portal by going to Customize > Texts, then select Search under Assistant.

What happens if there are no matching search results?

To provide users with additional support or resources, enable an external help link that displays automatically if they receive zero results for their search. This link can direct them to either an external documentation page or to their managers via a "mailto:"

To enable Search for an application, go to Customize > Search in the Userlane Portal or  ⇨ Start this Guide for an interactive tour. 

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