I worked on search from a handful of angles, but the main focus was to create an understandable UI backed by qualitative and quantitative research. At the same time I also worked with other teams and taxonomists to better structure data and meaningful categories to guide buyers to what they are looking for.
What search looked like when I joined the team in 2014:
I started by updating the search results page to feel more like the other main pages on Etsy's site. After conducting some user research and testing, I also updated the UI of several search filters.
The next step was to make search more responsive by taking better advantage of different screen sizes. To make this happen, I worked very closely with engineers and together we rewrote all of the legacy HTML and CSS on the search page using Etsy's new CSS tool kit.
I spent a good chunk of my time working to understand the difference between low-, medium- and high-intent queries and understand how we could create different and more tailored experiences. I have a deeper dive into this subject found here.
I spent a lot of time thinking through different ways to allow buyers to filter items while adding new filters when they became available through structered data efforts, all while making sure they were mapped to the most current visual language of Etsy.
I also worked on the category pages, streamlining ways in which buyers can be connected with items in which they're interested.
Etsy was continually updating the visual UI and running experiments to improve the experience. Search will never be done. The smallest details have made an impact on our metrics around search. Things like font size, spacing and image size have all changed the experience.
I also worked on these features at the same time for all sizes of Android, iOS and mobile web. You can see more of my app work for Etsy here. I also spent a lot of time working on and updating our universal listing card with other IA choices along the way.