Something I have noticed with website users is a tendency to go for the first obvious text entry box on a screen when intending to search for something. Generally the users in question are of the generation who did not have the internet growing up, so their perspective is different from a lot of us, but, I am still talking about intelligent, educated people, who are making an effort to use the internet, definitely with email addresses and some history of e-commerce purchases, quite possibly with facebook accounts too.
Why have I observed users who fall into this category making the mistake of trying to use the wrong box to search a site and often getting lost as a result? What mistakes are being made in the interface and in the understanding of these users?
Answer
I have two reasons for using wrong box for searching.
- New way of information consumption. Internet changes the way of information consumption. Internet is fast and huge and easy to interact. The typical loop is
Search – View. No waste time to read and think on interface, more time to consume. So this is an implementation of the famous "Don't make me think" strategy. Simplified users' mental model is: blue underlined text could be clicked, single line input box performs search. - The lack of uniformity in placing search box. Searching in a paper book is not a problem, as the table of content has fixed place: the beginning of a book. On a website there is no such uniformity. So the slip (right user's intention but fault in implementation) is occured.
I think the first reason explains why most browsers have eventually removed separate search field and use omnibox instead.
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