Speaking just as a user of lds.org and as a frequent complainer about many things elsewhere...kennova wrote:Disclaimer: I'm on the Search Team at National Instruments here in Austin, Texas..
Why does the Search box require a click to get to? One the biggest feedback items for our website ni.com is that the search box is the most heavily used asset. We are constantly getting feedback to make it bigger, more accessible, etc. Why the decision in the new.lds.org site?
I'm also interested in the search engine that lds.org uses..
One problem with focusing the keyboard in a search box, at least with some methods of doing that, is it can make it more difficult for users to do other things on the page. For example, starting some weeks ago, at a certain professional social networking site, keyboard focus is now forced to the search box on at least some pages. The problem is Ctrl-W no longer works to close that (Firefox) browser window, which is different from nearly all other sites I frequent. At that site, I have to press TAB to get the keyboard focus out of the search box before Ctrl-W will work.
I don't know what factors might have been involved in the present design at lds.org, but sometimes there are counterbalancing factors that need to be weighed.