"Top-down" (ask a lot of questions upfront) search does not fare very well with users, since it often demands pre-science of expected results. Hence the popularity of the faceted search: single search field (or simple set of the fields) --> large set of results --> controls to filter the results to desired set.
In your message you conflate this search approach with additional problem -- clear indication of modes. The best use of modes, of course, is not to use them at all. -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is design of time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Brian Herzfeldt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Hi all, > Designing a search component for a travel site that requires you to search. > Can search by city/state, address, point of interest, airport . . . the > usual stuff. > > Some travel sites default to a searchbox defaulted to the fields for city. > If the user wants to search by airport or by point of interest they have to > select another mode or tab on the searchbox to get those fields. My > contention is that people get a lot of error messages because they put in > say a point of interest without seeing the mode tab (we know they get a lot > of error messages at this step). T > > Some travel sites like hotels.com,Mobissimo have gone to a single > searchbox > that allows people to enter whatever they want supporting more 'google' > like > search query behavior. My contention is its better to allow people to enter > whatever makes sense to them as long as the system can interpret it and > return reasonable results. > > Anyone have any research or wisdom to support either case? Thanks! > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
