On Fri, 30 Jul 2010, Sarah Weeks wrote:
Long time lurker, first time poster.
I have a little usability question I was hoping someone could give me advice
on.
I'm updating the databases page on our website and we'd like to add a search
box that would search certain fields we have set up for our databases
(title, vendor, etc...) so that even if someone doesn't remember the first
word in the title, they can quickly find the database they're looking
through without having to scroll through the whole A-Z list.
My question is: if we add a search box to our main database page, how can we
make it clear that it's for searching FOR a database and not IN a database?
Some of the choices we've considered are:
Seach for a database:
Search this list:
Don't remember the name of the database? Search here:
I'm not feeling convinced by any of them. I'm afraid when people see a
search box they're not going to bother reading the text but will just assume
it's a federated search tool.
Any advice?
If the issue is trying to keep the wording short so you don't clutter up
the main page, consider putting a larger, more detailed message on the
results page, such as :
Didn't find what you were looking for?
This searches the names of the databases, but doesn't search
within them. ...
(yes, I know, it wastes their time, and CPU cycles on your machine, but
it's an alternative if the issue's trying to make the website look pretty)
-Joe
