search box
I don't like having to find a button to click on to open the search box on the first page.
We now have a search box that is always present at the top of the page.
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F. Ehrhardt commented
3 comments:
1. Agree violently with OP that search box should ALWAYS be present. And disagree with first comment that 2 clicks is little effort. LOL.
2. Movielens, I was and I bet, 90% of users also are, unaware that keyboard shortcuts exist. Unfortunate because in this case, (a) you put effort into that instead of just making the search text box persistent, and (b) it would ameliorate the IMHO UI design error if we knew there were ways to avoid leaving the keyboard.
3. But WAIT: if you're going to implement a shortcut, you have now just created another frustration, but failing to move the keyboard focus to the search box. Think about it: if the user knows the shortcut, don't you think the VERY NEXT action they want to take, is to type in the serach box? So the shortcut gives, and the unfinished UI implementation takes away. -
Anonymous commented
I strongly disagree (to make the search box visible on the header at all times)! Two clicks with the mouse is far less that typing a title thus very little additional effort is needed by having to open the search box.* If it was there all the time it would hurt my eyes! This is true because I changed the page style (using the "Stylish" extension for "Firefox") to have a fixed, non-scrolling page header.** I did that partially to have access to the search box any time. But if the search box was there all the time, it would take too much screen space. Visit https://www.yahoo.com/ and scroll down as an example.
If the suggestion is to have the home page header different than the header at any other page, e.g., a movie detail page, I disagree even more because inconsistencies create confusion. The reasons in the first paragraph still apply.
I realized the slash key, "/", is a shortcut for the search box. So the access to the search box cannot be easier. This neat feature could make the page scroll to the top, but not with my fixed header.
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*Certainly the same amount of effort as a basic search in classic.movielens.org.
**I also changed the text of the button next to the search bar to "submit." That I would be my suggestion to the movielens team, so no one could say having to two search buttons is confusing! Yet I admit changing a button's label may confuse someone. So if anybody reads this, be aware I am not adding this suggestion to be voted in this forum. Additionally, I changed the search box position to be below the word "search" on the button that opens it, otherwise I have to go looking for the box.