Apple and Facebook recently implemented a darkening of their global search inputs until focused. Apple's default short input width - widening on focus is also interesting.
My first assumption is that their intention is to drive interaction with content and navigation - which can more easily be tweaked and adjusted based on analytics and usability testing rather than to the more flat algorithm generated search results.
What are the benefits/risks of this pattern?
- What other sites are implementing this pattern?
- What other patterns/interaction design principles influenced this technique?
Answer
I think this is a great way to increase users' immersion on the site/page. Both of those sites have very engaging content (for wildly different reasons) but making the search bar less visible keeps eyes on the new iPad or status updates. Greater immersion leads to more time spent on the site and higher engagement.
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