Building Discoverability into Our Daily Information Consumption
We live in an age of information overload. Big data as a computing technology has been taking significant shape in recent years to help us organize, handle, and consume data in meaningful portions, but the information inundation can still get overwhelming and expensive to handle and maintain.
The technology industry is beginning to look beyond just big data. If we look at keywords that are becoming essential to information processing, searchability and discoverability are critical. Any piece of information an organization has access to needs to become searchable and discoverable to the relevant end-users at times they need it.
For example, technologies that will quickly comprehend a user’s context and need and present relevant information in a format that is compatible with a device the user has will be far more successful than another that does not account for these varied parameters. Let’s say I live in the United States but am currently traveling to China and I am a vegetarian looking for restaurant options. A piece of discoverable information here that can list vegetarian eating options in the area of China I am in depending on what time of day I am searching and can present appropriate details is what will win my support.
Google has been acknowledged as the early pioneer in the space of searchable content organization, and no doubt it is still one of the leaders out there. However, the space is no longer a monopoly. Businesses have begun concentrating on search engine optimization to promote better discoverability of information online, especially with content access on mobile devices. Discoverability-driven app stores also are on the rise.
A new business opportunity is emerging from the world of content digitization. As large pieces of content are digitized—for example, old books, medical journals, and law references—the text is so voluminous that it is difficult to analyze so much data. Start-ups such as Textio are hoping to bring insightful text discoverability in online content by identifying patterns in digitized documents.
Paying heed to discoverability is a good thing from multiple angles. It helps the end-user community use the information in more meaningful ways, better connects the text provider to the end-users, and supports varied other disciplines such as development, content, and testing. From a software testing angle specifically, this also promotes keyword-driven test automation, discoverability across platforms and devices, a greater depth in content testing, and an increased tester appreciation for specific data the end-users are attempting to discover.
Given the increasing online presence of every business, information discoverability is a niche that software engineers can focus on to give themselves an edge.
