Agustín Isasa
Unifying Search cover: PedidosYa home with the search bar, and search results grouped by shop across restaurants and markets

Unifying search experience

  • PedidosYa
  • 2022

One context-aware search for every PedidosYa vertical, replacing 7 fragmented implementations.

The problem

Search drove about a third of PedidosYa's orders. But as the app grew into new verticals, each team shipped its own version, and by 2022 there were 7. Search behaved differently depending on where you started, and every new vertical meant building it again.

The solution

We designed one search component for every vertical. Research showed two ways people search, looking for something specific or exploring a category, so the component adapts its scope, placeholder and empty states to where the user is, while behaving the same everywhere. When nothing matches, it suggests where to look instead of a dead end. It lives in the design system, ready for every team.

Outcome

It shipped across all verticals in Q1 2022. Search conversion held above 40%, and engineering went from maintaining seven searches to one.

Seven different search bars from across the PedidosYa app, each with its own layout and behavior
Before: 7 searches, each with its own pattern.
Research: two search modes, high and medium decisiveness, and a benchmark of six products including Uber Eats, Rappi and Google
Two search modes, and 6 products benchmarked.
Strategy: search as a system, not a screen, with three steps and three principles: consistency, guidance, discovery
Search as a system, not a screen.
The unified search component showing all results, popular searches before typing, results filtered by vertical, and a no-results state
After: one component. All results, before typing, filtered by vertical, no results.
Outcome: what was built, where it made impact (conversion held above 40%, less abandonment, one component to maintain) and next steps
Outcome and next steps.