Search

Search

Transforming search from filters to intelligent content discovery

Transforming search from filters to intelligent content discovery

ROLE

Lead product designer, end-to-end product experience

SCOPE

Evolving content discovery through AI-powered semantic search across multiple products.

Context

TL:DR

WSC Sports is a B2B video automation platform used by sports organizations to create and distribute video content at scale.

The search experience is one of the platform's core capabilities and is used across multiple products, including Library, Mini Library, and Mobile.

As the platform expanded beyond live sports into interviews, press conferences, news, and additional content types, discovering the right content became significantly more challenging.

WSC Sports is a B2B video automation platform used by sports organizations to create and distribute video content at scale.

The search experience is one of the platform’s core capabilities and is used across multiple products, including Library, Mini Library, and Mobile.

As the platform expanded beyond live sports into interviews, press conferences, news, and additional content types, discovering the right content became significantly more challenging.

Challenge

The existing search experience could no longer support the growing complexity of content.

Users struggled when they:

Wanted to discover content rather than search for a specific item

knew what they wanted but didn't know which filters to combine

knew what they wanted but didn’t know which filters to combine

Expected search to understand what they meant instead of matching keywords

Old search

Research & insight

To better understand how search should evolve, I explored user workflows, analyzed existing behavior, researched AI search patterns, and collaborated closely with Product and Engineering.

To better understand how search should evolve, I explored user workflows, analyzed existing behavior, researched AI search patterns, and collaborated closely with Product and Engineering.

INSIGHT 01

Users have different discovery needs

Precision SEARCH

User knows exactly what they need

Known requirements

Known requirements

Filters

Filters

Exact content

Exact content

DISCOVERY SEARCH

User knows the outcome, not the exact parameters

Users know the outcome, not the parameters

User intent

User intent

Natural language search

Natural language search

Relevant moments

Relevant moments

INSIGHT 02

Content evolved beyond structured search

As content expanded, users needed to discover beyond predefined attributes and explore through context and meaning.

Before

Core sports content

Games, Highlights

Platform evolution

Content expanded beyond games

Press conferences, Interviews, Shows, News

What changed

Need for a smarter search model

Search needed to understand user intent.

LeBron’s best game

Player

Context

Story

Game

Design decision

Design decision

DECISION 01

Create a hybrid search experience

Introducing AI-powered discovery while preserving existing workflows

The goal was not to replace filters with AI, but to create a more flexible search experience that supports different user needs.

Before and after

DECISION 02

Designing a scalable search experience across products

Creating a consistent search model that can evolve with the platform

Search was a core capability across multiple products: Library, Mini Library, and Mobile.

I designed a scalable search pattern that could adapt to different contexts while maintaining consistency across the platform.

Search in studio & mobile

Final design

A smarter and more flexible search experience.

A smarter and more flexible search experience.

The final experience combines natural language search with structured filtering, allowing users to move seamlessly between exploration and precision. The same search model now supports multiple products across the platform.

Search by free text

Search by filters

Validation & Impact

Following launch, I analyzed adoption to understand how users interacted with the new experience.

Faster content discovery: Users could reach relevant content more quickly.

More accurate results: Semantic understanding and richer metadata improved search relevance.

Validated hybrid experience: ~40% of users still used filters, validating the hybrid experience.