🔍 Find What You Need, Faster: Introducing Global Search in Impact

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At Instructure, we believe that great ideas can come from anywhere—including our Hackweek, a week when engineers pause their regularly assigned work to explore passion projects and dive into innovative possibilities. One such idea turned into something game-changing: Global Search.

With Impact’s recent navigation redesign, engineers had trouble finding things for testing, as they had to manually explore and browse through menus. One engineer took this pain point head-on during Hackweek, creating a proof of concept for a search experience to simplify navigation. He hypothesized that a robust, indexed search function would dramatically improve efficiency and satisfaction. From there, Global Search was born! What started as a quick flow improvement for engineers quickly proved to be an essential upgrade—and now, it’s live for all Impact Admins!

Screenshot of main nav placement of global search feature

Core Components

🚀 Two Ways to Engage

Select the magnifying glass/search icon in the top right corner of the main navigation OR double press the shift key from anywhere in Impact to engage.

GIF showing how to engage with magnifying glass or double press shift key

🔎 Search Across the Entire Application
Type a keyword, and Global Search retrieves pages, actions, messages, walkthroughs, articles, campaigns, campaign (and walkthrough) templates, contexts, and monitors—instantly.

GIF showing results dynamically show when typing in a keyword

🤏 Narrow Focus with Filtering

Click the filter icon before or after inputting your key word(s) to narrow down search results to one or more specific areas of Impact for fewer results.

GIF to show filtering in global search

🎯 Immediately Actionable Search Results
Click on your desired result to go directly to that area of Impact saving you time and streamlining your workflows!

GIF to show actionable search results

⚡ Built for Speed & Accuracy
Engineered to prioritize relevant results, ensuring searches lead to a successful click and next step.

GIF showing speed of search 

What This Means for You

• Less time searching, more time acting – Quickly locate reports, campaigns, settings, and more!
• Easier onboarding for new admins – No need to memorize menu structures—just search and go!
• A smoother experience overall – Whether you need to manage your actions or content, check analytics, or troubleshoot, everything is now at your fingertips.

Try It Today!

Global Search is available now in Impact! Simply look for the search icon in the main navigation, start typing, and experience a faster, more intuitive way to navigate.

Got feedback? Drop us a comment below!