Baidu Search’s Personalized Gaokao Experience: Design, Usability, and Growth

Design Background

Gaokao is one of the most important and challenging exams in China. With the widespread use of mobile devices, students need online access to exam information. Baidu Search provides pre‑exam resources (past papers, essays), in‑exam information (schedule), and post‑exam services (score lookup, volunteer filling, admission queries).

Design Approach

After years of maturing Gaokao functions, Baidu Search shifted from a passive query platform to a proactive, warm‑design that offers full‑process personalized services, easy‑to‑understand volunteer tools, and efficient information delivery, aiming to build the “Gaokao on Baidu” mindset, improve reputation, and drive user growth.

1. Shaping Mindset – Full‑Process Personalized Companion

Personalized “My Gaokao” Service

Users’ personal data (province, subject choices, scores, rankings, target schools) are aggregated in the “My Gaokao” module. The module displays this information globally, allowing a single edit to update all related pages, reducing operation cost and giving users stable expectations.

Information Emphasis

Key personal details are highlighted (bold, underline) in result cards, such as exam dates for chosen subjects, batch lines matching scores, and province‑specific question types, improving retrieval efficiency.

2. Accompanying Feel – “Gaokao Timeline” Full‑Process Companion

The exam journey is divided into five stages. The “Gaokao Timeline” presents relevant content for each stage, providing continuous guidance.

Main Hall – Timeline Navigation

The search result page for “Gaokao” adopts a tabbed timeline that links tools and cards for each stage, enhancing companionship and increasing search distribution.

Widget – Timeline on Home Screen

Users can add a small widget to their phone home screen; the timeline scrolls automatically according to the current exam period, and tapping it opens the corresponding Baidu app page, boosting page views.

3. Building Reputation – Volunteer Tool that is Easy to Understand and Use

Understandable Design

The volunteer prediction tool, built in‑house, replaces third‑party services. Emotional visual cues (color, emojis) help users grasp concepts quickly. The interface uses a vibrant blue base with fluorescent accents, expressive emojis for “risky”, “steady”, “safe” options, and a glass‑morphism transition for a modern feel.

Usable Design

Operation efficiency is improved by merging multi‑step processes: cascading filters for schools and majors, combined editing of volunteer tables, and unified layouts reduce user effort. Additional entry points in related scenes guide users to the volunteer tool, and the school hall now shows prediction cards directly.

4. Promoting Growth – Efficient Information Satisfaction

Page Framework Aggregation

Two‑level tabs consolidate eight sub‑scenes (schedule, past papers, score lines, volunteer, etc.). The first‑level tab groups core scenes, while the second‑level tab displays detailed content, reducing search cost and increasing exposure.

Table Visual Enhancement

Tables adopt zebra‑striped rows, special numeric fonts, and blue text for clickable links, lowering visual noise and improving readability, which leads to higher click‑through rates.

Conclusion

In 2023, Baidu Search’s “full‑process personalized companion”, “volunteer easy‑to‑understand”, and “efficient information” strategies helped break growth bottlenecks, achieving higher user scale and satisfaction after the Gaokao season, with expectations to continue delivering warm, high‑quality services to students nationwide.