 |
 |
As others have noted, a little user testing goes a long way. Anyway, on our upcoming site we've opted for A-Z buttons + an autocomplete box labelled "Quick Database Browse" (although I don't think this particular bit of language has been tested yet). Both of these are browse options and assume the user knows the name of the database they want; if they don't, we'd like to route them through our research guides: http://www.ithacalibrary.com/lib2010/articles/ Andrew On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 8:22 AM, Sarah Weeks <[log in to unmask]> 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? > > -Sarah Beth > > -- > Sarah Beth Weeks > Interim Head Librarian of Technical Services and Systems > St Olaf College Rolvaag Memorial Library > 1510 St. Olaf Avenue > Northfield, MN 55057 > 507-786-3453 (office) > 717-504-0182 (cell) > -- Andrew Darby Web Services Librarian Ithaca College Library http://www.ithaca.edu/library/ [log in to unmask]