About Dynamic Navigation Experience (DNE)

This is for:

Developer System Administrator
DNE in action

Coveo Machine Learning (Coveo ML) Dynamic Navigation Experience (DNE) models leverage usage analytics events to pertinently order facets and facet values according to the user query and language. More precisely, DNE models analyze queries and actions performed by previous users (for example, clicked results, facet selections) to make the most relevant facets appear at the top for a given query.

Coveo ML DNE models also reorder facet values within a given facet to make the most popular values appear at the top. To do so, the models use the search events performed by previous users who have selected certain facet values for a specific query.

Furthermore, Coveo ML DNE offers a facet value autoselection feature that improves the user experience by automatically selecting facet values according to user queries.

A Coveo ML DNE model uses its facet value ranking to boost search results. The model uses the most popular facet values ​for a certain query and applies query ranking expressions (QREs) to boost the search results whose field values match the values of those facets.

Important

A Coveo Machine Learning (Coveo ML) DNE model requires dynamic facets. If your search interface uses the Coveo JavaScript Search Framework, DNE doesn’t support regular facets. For more information, see Configure dynamic facets in your search interface.

Members with the required privileges can create, manage, and deploy a DNE model.

Example

You’re selling smartphones on your site. Before enabling Coveo ML DNE, your search page, powered by the Coveo JavaScript Search Framework, displays facets in the following order when customers search for cellphone:

  • Screen size

  • Storage capacity

  • Price

  • Brand

You enable a Coveo ML DNE model. When your search interface sends a query to the Search API to request facets, the DNE model modifies that query in the query pipeline. It applies insights gained from the analysis of past customer behavior and determines that users are most likely to sort search results using the Brand and Price facets. Your search page now displays facets in the following order:

  • Brand

  • Price

  • Screen size

  • Storage capacity

Before enabling Coveo ML DNE, the Brand facet displayed its facet values in the following order when customers searched for cellphone:

  • LG

  • Samsung

  • Apple

You enable a Coveo ML DNE model. When your search interface sends a query to the Search API to request facets, the DNE model modifies that query in the query pipeline. It applies insights gained from the analysis of past customer behavior and determines that users are most likely to search for Apple and Samsung smartphones rather than for LG devices. The JavaScript Search Framework now displays the facet values within the Brand facet in the following order:

  • Apple

  • Samsung

  • LG

Since the Coveo ML DNE model determined that customers are more likely to shop for Apple phones, the model modifies the user query to boost Apple phone result list items.

About the Autoselection feature

Since the Coveo JavaScript Search Framework January 2020 release, it’s possible to activate the DNE autoselection feature in your Coveo-powered search interfaces. To use this feature, you only need to specify which facets to apply the feature on when you create your DNE model.

Following a user query, the DNE autoselection feature can automatically select the most relevant facet value from the returned facets. To do so, the feature learns from your end-users behaviors to understand which facet values are the most relevant according to their current browsing task.

Example

For a Coveo-powered clothing commerce interface, a Coveo administrator created a DNE model and chose to enable the autoselection feature for the category and gender facets when configuring the model.

When accessing the commerce interface, a customer searches for a skirt.

Based on the current context and recorded usage analytics data, the model determines that the Skirts and Dresses value of the Category facet and the Women value of the gender facet are relevant enough to be automatically selected and refine the user query.

example of DNE autoselect

About the Facet Generator feature

As a complement to your DNE model, the Facet Generator displays the best facets for your search interface. It works right away, without any training, and is ideal for commerce scenarios.

See About the Facet Generator for details.