Context

Most internal tools need search. People, records, cases.

Across teams, this had been solved many times — each slightly differently.
The result was inconsistent experiences, repeated effort, and poor accessibility.

The goal was simple:

Create one pattern that works everywhere.

The work

This wasn’t about designing a search UI.

It was about creating something that could:

• work across different systems and data models

• be easy for teams to adopt

• hold a consistent standard for usability and accessibility

I worked closely with engineering to design the pattern as a shared micro-frontend.

Key decisions

Treated search as a service, not a component

• Designed for variation without losing consistency

• Built in accessibility from the start, not as a check

• Focused on adoption as much as design

Impact

• One reusable pattern used across multiple teams

• Less duplicated effort across products

• More consistent and accessible search experiences

• A model for building shared design infrastructure

Reflection

The interface is simple. The system behind it and the adoption ahead isn’t.

This work was about designing something that could hold up across unknown use cases, teams, and technologies and still be easy to use.