When users encounter a relatively complex navigation system, they will immediately look for a search box to get to their final destination quickly and painlessly. If the website’s navigation is simple and intuitive and there are very few articles “lying around” and not really fitting your navigation scheme, search, and hence a search box, won’t be necessary.Īn efficient search engine puts users in control of their search for information. Not every website needs internal search functionality however, you often have to meet users’ needs for quick access to information, particularly when the website is growing. All of the examples shown below are linked to the pages from where they were taken. Below you will find a few, but important, guidelines to keep in mind when creating search box designs. They are more likely to either leave the website (hitting the “Back” button and returning to Google’s search results), or turn to the only escape hatch they (hopefully) have: the holy search box.Īlthough the back-end process of searching a website is very important, we shouldn’t neglect the front end, the design, either. When content organization appears to be a mess and it seems nearly impossible to find information, users are very unlikely to decide to browse the available sections of the website. 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs.10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines.Principles Of Effective Search In E-Commerce Design.
You may want to take a look at the following related posts: The consequence is a poor navigation scheme that is more irritating than helpful, because the content appears to be scattered all over the place instead of contained in separate, very distinct folders (in fact, this is a problem we encountered here at Smashing Magazine a couple of weeks ago). However, these new content islands do not necessarily fit the whole information architecture that was well-designed and thoroughly structured when the website was initially designed. In practice, websites tend to grow over time, adding new content and, more importantly for us, adding new navigation options, such as additional content sections.
The best designs offer a simple search box on the home page and play down advanced search and scoping. In fact, search is the user’s lifeline to mastering complex websites. If a website’s content is not organized properly, an efficient search engine is not only helpful but crucial, even for basic website navigation. From a usability point of view, irritated users use the search function as a last option when looking for specific information on a website.
On content-heavy websites, the search box is often the most frequently used design element.
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