Department of Energy

The United States Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE) is the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences, the steward of 10 of the nation’s national laboratories, and the lead federal agency supporting fundamental research for energy production and security. When DOE wanted to better promote their mission of expanding human knowledge and driving discovery, they engaged agencyQ to help personalize their digital experience.

The DOE website contained millions of unorganized scientific content pieces. The website was lacking a way for audiences to accurately search the site, and research relevant content quickly. Without a personalized experience, users struggled to find the information they needed and often found information in formats they couldn’t understand. DOE was looking for help improving the search function and content display to better personalize online experiences for their audiences.

agencyQ harnessed all aspects of personalization to deliver for DOE. agencyQ architected a custom technology solution utilizing Sitecore, Coveo, IBM Watson and Find-it-First (agencyQ’s own proprietary technology tool). First, we automated the analysis and tagging of high volumes of historical content and set-up a process for new content to be uploaded, automatically evaluated, and tagged on an ongoing basis. With better tagging and organization, users yielded better search results. Additionally, the solution allowed DOE to track habits of users that came to the site, determine their persona type, and serve them relevant content when they were searching. Furthermore, when they searched for content, based on their persona type, the content would dynamically adjust the presentation of the content so it was best-suited for their individual needs. For example, a third-grade teacher might see results materialize as a classroom-ready visual with suggested homework assignments, while an astrophysicist might see charts ready to add to a research report. The site is widely used to help scientists in all roles find their next breakthrough.

The project with DOE is ongoing. DOE continues to use agencyQ’s innovative technology-focused solution in order to deliver accurate and personalized information for its audiences. We saved DOE an estimated 4-7 years of labor analyzing, tagging and migrating data and reduced time spent finding relevant content by 50%. Since Q1 2019, referral traffic has grown by over 55% YOY with strong improvements in user behavior like pages per session and average session duration. We maintain an ongoing relationship with DOE to update the algorithm used for user behavior and ensure their systems are up-to-date.