This includes allowing
searching specific sections, which is best left on a separate advanced search page.
Users expect the homepage search function to show results from the entire site.
Make the button??™s label crystal clear. It should say Search. A lot of sites try cute
label text like ???find??? or ???discover,??? but that only invites confusion. Unless there??™s a
very good reason not to, stick with the standard.
Web surfing habits are slowly gravitating toward more search-oriented navigation. Users
have discovered that it is often quicker to enter a query string and find the page immediately
than traverse a tangle of menu options, dead-end pages, and distractions. As
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searching becomes more second nature over time, people will expect to be able to rapidly
search even the shallowest sites. As you can see in Figure 5-3, even smaller businesses are
providing the option to search.
Figure 5-3. The homepage for MemberHealth provides first-time visitors with a welcoming spread of
content, from a brief but informative description to a rich navigation and a search feature.
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