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Sorry but that’s going to result in a pretty horrible search experience. If you are putting a search bar on your page and that’s your search backend - you migh

Sorry but that’s going to result in a pretty horrible search experience. If you are putting a search bar on your page and that’s your search backend - you might as well skip search entirely because it’s only going to cause you and your customers pain. The difference with find on page is that it’s obvious and transparent what is being searched and the expectations of the interface. Trust me when I say that a search bar to a layperson on your site is them thinking “oooh I can google”

kccqzy 7y ago
Sound like you need to redesign your search bar on the page to convey to users the expectation that this is a simple search.
- gibrown 7y ago
  Do you have an example of that that simple search bar could look like?
  - kccqzy 7y ago
    I'm not a professional UI/UX designer but here's a guess. It should not be the prominent thing on your page. Prominent search bars like the one on Google's home page convey to users the idea that this is the primary way to navigate and use this website, and therefore be loaded with higher expectations. So don't make the search bar look prominent. Next, make it context-specific. Don't put a search bar at the top of the page suggesting that this bar can search for everything. If you use a simple implementation like a SQL LIKE to implement search, put the search bar right next to the thing that is displaying results from the table. Make it look like it's filtering the table. Finally, label the search bar using words like "Keywords," which also suggest to users that they should be typing keywords instead of a more complicated natural language phrase.
    - gibrown 7y ago
      Those are interesting ideas thanks for the thoughts. FWIW I’ve seen users try to use even non-prominent search boxes like those as if they can do more than SQL LIKE. Most users have no idea how any of this works and just want answers. Mostly I think this whole thread demonstrates the point of the original article, but I appreciate your response.
ufmace 7y ago
I appreciate your experience, but you may have also noticed that there's a number of sibling comments from developers whose customers definitely did want a Ctrl-F type search, and not some near-AI match-what-I-really-meant thing. I've certainly worked in vertical markets where that's what the customer actually wanted. I think it more goes back to the real most important lesson of programming - you must know your customer and their needs first. If a google-like experience is what your customers demand, then you better understand all of that stuff and build it. If they just want to search for names and ticket numbers, any more advanced intelligence is a waste of time that could have been used to build other features that the customer actually wants.

kccqzy 7y ago

Sound like you need to redesign your search bar on the page to convey to users the expectation that this is a simple search.

gibrown 7y ago
Do you have an example of that that simple search bar could look like?
- kccqzy 7y ago
  I'm not a professional UI/UX designer but here's a guess. It should not be the prominent thing on your page. Prominent search bars like the one on Google's home page convey to users the idea that this is the primary way to navigate and use this website, and therefore be loaded with higher expectations. So don't make the search bar look prominent. Next, make it context-specific. Don't put a search bar at the top of the page suggesting that this bar can search for everything. If you use a simple implementation like a SQL LIKE to implement search, put the search bar right next to the thing that is displaying results from the table. Make it look like it's filtering the table. Finally, label the search bar using words like "Keywords," which also suggest to users that they should be typing keywords instead of a more complicated natural language phrase.
  - gibrown 7y ago
    Those are interesting ideas thanks for the thoughts. FWIW I’ve seen users try to use even non-prominent search boxes like those as if they can do more than SQL LIKE. Most users have no idea how any of this works and just want answers. Mostly I think this whole thread demonstrates the point of the original article, but I appreciate your response.

ufmace 7y ago

I appreciate your experience, but you may have also noticed that there's a number of sibling comments from developers whose customers definitely did want a Ctrl-F type search, and not some near-AI match-what-I-really-meant thing. I've certainly worked in vertical markets where that's what the customer actually wanted. I think it more goes back to the real most important lesson of programming - you must know your customer and their needs first. If a google-like experience is what your customers demand, then you better understand all of that stuff and build it. If they just want to search for names and ticket numbers, any more advanced intelligence is a waste of time that could have been used to build other features that the customer actually wants.