 |
 |
On Fri, 30 Jul 2010, Sarah Weeks wrote: > Long time lurker, first time poster. > I have a little usability question I was hoping someone could give me advice > on. > I'm updating the databases page on our website and we'd like to add a search > box that would search certain fields we have set up for our databases > (title, vendor, etc...) so that even if someone doesn't remember the first > word in the title, they can quickly find the database they're looking > through without having to scroll through the whole A-Z list. > My question is: if we add a search box to our main database page, how can we > make it clear that it's for searching FOR a database and not IN a database? > Some of the choices we've considered are: > Seach for a database: > Search this list: > Don't remember the name of the database? Search here: > > I'm not feeling convinced by any of them. I'm afraid when people see a > search box they're not going to bother reading the text but will just assume > it's a federated search tool. > > Any advice? If the issue is trying to keep the wording short so you don't clutter up the main page, consider putting a larger, more detailed message on the results page, such as : Didn't find what you were looking for? This searches the names of the databases, but doesn't search within them. ... (yes, I know, it wastes their time, and CPU cycles on your machine, but it's an alternative if the issue's trying to make the website look pretty) -Joe