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Go and search button are confusing
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Description

Most people do not intuitively understand the difference between "Go" and "Search".

Using a design with one button and a checkbox "[x] try exact match" is probably
a better idea.


Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement
Platform: PC

Details

Reference
bz577

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Low.Nov 21 2014, 6:56 PM
bzimport added a project: MediaWiki-Search.
bzimport set Reference to bz577.

Created attachment 51
mock-up of button/checkbox combo

Attached:

gobutton-new.png (77×149 px, 1 KB)

bugzilla_wikipedia_org.to.jamesd wrote:

Search doesn't and shouldn't try an exact match. Go and search are the correct
functions and descriptions.

I have not met a single person who understood the sense of either:

search
[..user input..]
 [Go]  [Search]


Find: [..user input..] [Go] [Search]

They usually do after a while of experimenting. (Search disabled - please use Google - of course usually Google
does not find anything at all on small language wikis - tends to be another disruptive measure)

See also Bug# 5818

nd wrote:

The Usability Report done in http://openusability.org/reports/get_file.php?group_id=109&repid=69 also mentions
this (section 3.4.1)

I just wanted to suggest a similar feature for unifying "Go" and "Search":

  • Go to an article if there exists one for the search term. In that case, be sure to place a link "search all

articles for <search term>" prominently at the top of the page. This leads to the functionality delivered by
the full text search today.

  • If there was no article found for the search term, deliver the results of a full text search directly.

Additional changes that may make search better usable:

  • For power-users, still provide a button that has the functinality of the search button, but _hide it by

default_ with a CSS style of display: none; power users may make this button visible again using a custon
stylesheet

  • Maybe re-label the combined "Go/Search" button with "Find". According to usability studies, this word is

(slightly) easier to understand

ayg wrote:

(In reply to comment #4)

  • For power-users, still provide a button that has the functinality of the search button, but

_hide it by

default_ with a CSS style of display: none; power users may make this button visible again using a

custon

stylesheet

CSS shouldn't be used for things like this. What we could do is have a GET parameter that's not
actually accessible through the default interface, but you could use JavaScript to add a button that
would access it if you really wanted.

nslonim wrote:

Additional changes that would make search intuitive/less confusing:

  1. The search textbox should default to a search - not the v1.13 behavior (only if no article found deliver the results of a full text search).
  1. Add a checkbox "I'm feeling very lucky" for exact matches (with a default unclicked).

It is not common practice in search nowadays to jumping to an exact match without requesting it explicitly.

r46042 introduced the new optional behavior to show the commonly used pair of "Go" button & "Advanced search" link by setting $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm = false; in LocalSettings.php.

Usability team is working on this issue. :) Assigning to Trevor.

This seems to be kinda done in the Vector:
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2010/05/simplified-search-for-vector/

The problem is the search button does not search! This is a usability fail. The magnifying glass *always* mean "search".