Super complex search users by custom meta data

Hi and thank you for opening my thread,

I am trying to display a list of users on my site which is working fine however I am trying to add a “search by” feature and things got pretty complicated.

Here is my basic code:

$args  = array(
  'fields' => 'all_with_meta',
  'meta_query' => array(
    array(
    'key' => 'business_city',
    'value' => 'Toronto'
    )
));
$blogusers = get_users($args);

Which works fine, HOWEVER the hard part is using another custom meta field I created that contains an Array for information 🙁

$args  = array(
  'fields' => 'all_with_meta',
  'meta_query' => array(
    array(
    'key' => '1_area_of_acad_res',
    'value' => 'Scale of the Economy'
    )
));
$blogusers = get_users($args);

The above doesn’t display anything because the meta info reads as below (print_r)

[1_area_of_acad_res] => Array
(
[0] => a:2:{i:0;s:42:”Ecological Principles in Economic Analysis”;i:1;s:24:”Other – please specify”;}
)

To display this information (on a detail page). I need to first unserialize [eg: unserialize($userinfo[‘1_area_of_acad_res’][0]);]

Now how in the heck can I search this? I am now thinking it’s impossible to do this and I will need to redo my custom fields. Basically instead of a bunch of check boxes that builds an array, I make a custom meta field for each and every value and mark it as true/false… that will enable me to easily scan the db using the get_users function 🙁

Please tell me I’m 100% wrong and this is a very easy thing to do 🙂

Thank you so much! Also once done, I will make this into a real plugin and provide to the community because a good member list plugin cannot be found (I downloaded/purchased them all – none work to my very basic specifications/requirements)… thanks again!