Notes on search
For my first post, let’s start where you go when you’re lost: the search bar.
It’s no surprise that search across sites is a familiar experience, but what are the differences? And are there good reasons for them?
In this post I’ll look at my most frequented sites: Facebook, GitHub, Gmail, Quora, Slack, and Trello.
Research
Placement & Size
Top, top, top. Every site places search at the top of the page. Not only that, but most put it in the prime real-estate of the top-left corner. Slack is the slightly odd one out with their search bar in the top-right.
Most bars tend to be large. Like, really large. Gmail comes in at a whopping 650px wide. Slack & Trello have the smallest bars but all are large enough to find without much scanning.
Copy & Icons
It’s a mixed bag in copywriting. Some opt for “Search ______”, others simply “Search”, and several have no copy at all.
The magnifying glass is the universal symbol of search. Interestingly, in some cases it merely identifies the search bar (Quora, Slack, Trello), while in others it is the physical button to submit a search(Facebook, Gmail).
Interaction
Speaking of search buttons, they’re missing on several sites. Slack and Trello don’t have submit buttons, but they aren’t needed since searches are done in real-time as you type. Facebook has a submit button and also suggests results in real-time.
Quora doesn’t have a submit button, but suggests searches as you type. When they draw a blank, at least you know what to do next.
GitHub offers no buttons, prompts, or suggested results.
Search on Gmail really shines. They suggest both searches and results as you type.
The search button is still there just in case you don’t hit return.
Search Results
Evaluating the quality of results is beyond this post. But perhaps at some point…
Conclusions
The two outliers here are GitHub and Gmail, but in completely opposite directions.
GitHub’s barebones design is all they need. If you’re not comfortable searching, you’re not going to be on GitHub. The lack of suggested searches and suggested results may also make sense from a technical perspective; it’s hard to offer suggestions for searching something as cryptic as a codebase (Did you mean: public static void main(String[] args)?).
It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that Gmail’s search has more bells and whistles than most. The fact that their search is so prominently displayed also makes sense — they want you to use it! Why? Encouraging users to archive emails has always been a priority of Gmail. Why? Ah, well, that’s for another post.
