Project Overview

The governing body for the Privacy Mark SystemJapan Information Technology Promotion Association (JIPDEC)We were in charge of renewing the "Business Search Service" provided by.

The major themes for this project were "not compromising the existing high-speed search experience," "making it compatible with smartphones," and "significantly improving the update flow."

Background and Issues

While the previous system offered high-speed search capabilities, updating business information required a lot of manual work. The process of outputting data from the business system, processing it locally, and then uploading it was time-consuming and labor-intensive, resulting in increased operational costs and risks.

As the system was aging, there was a need to reduce the maintenance burden and establish an efficient operational system. In addition, support for a variety of devices, including smartphones, was also an issue.

Reasons for choosing Kuroco

After comparing and evaluating multiple architectures and confirming their feasibility, Kuroco was found to have the following advantages:

1. Fast search performance

   It is possible to achieve extremely fast responses even when searching large amounts of data, maintaining a user experience that is equal to or even better than that of existing sites.

2. Automatic updates via API integration

   Data from business systems can be linked via API, allowing update work to be fully automated.

3. Simplify and accelerate front-end deployment

   By providing KurocoFront, a CDN-based static content hosting service, it eliminates the need to contract for and manage separate hosting services and CDNs, significantly reducing the burden of infrastructure management.

4. Flexible scalability with Smarty

   In addition to the functionality of a headless CMS, Kuroco can customize API behavior using Smarty, allowing for flexible integration with external systems and various domains. The ability to easily process search results and implement unique display logic is also beneficial for developers with back-end knowledge.

There is no program execution environment like Lambda, Cloudflare Workers, or Edge Functions, but SmartyExtensive pluginsis available, which is sufficient for calling APIs, saving JSON, and handling common use cases.

Development of search UI for smartphones

Easy-to-use search functionality was already available in the traditional PC environment. To replicate this functionality on a smartphone, the way the modal screen for switching search criteria is displayed and the organization of the navigation flow are important factors that influence the user experience.

By optimizing these features for the mobile environment and taking web accessibility into consideration, we have created a search UI that is intuitive and easy to use even on smartphones.

It was a challenging undertaking, but in the end we were able to provide consistent convenience on both PC and mobile.

Results and Effects

We were able to achieve an ideal construction with the architecture we selected at the beginning.

• User Experience

  High-speed continuous searches enable you to instantly retrieve the desired information from a large amount of business information. We have created a UI that is highly searchable even on smartphones.

• Operational Efficiency

  Automating update flows eliminates manual effort and risk of error.

• Scalability

  Customization using Smarty allows for flexible response to future feature expansion and external integration.

summary

With this renewal, we were able to achieve both operational efficiency and maintaining high-speed performance, issues that previously tended to be trade-offs.

1. Business information is automatically linked to Kuroco via API from the business system
2. Batch processing keeps your site updated regularly

I believe that the selection of service technology directly led to the success of this project, as it relieved administrators of their burden and allowed users to continue to enjoy a comfortable search experience.

Furthermore, this project was supported by the high level of knowledge of the JIPDEC staff and the solid technical capabilities of the vendor in charge of the business system, and progressed smoothly and positively until the very end.

It was a very satisfying project for us.