| DanielFriesen |
| Sep 29 2012, 6:10 PM |
| F9722: Screen_Shot_2014-09-02_at_17.47.50.png |
| Nov 22 2014, 12:49 AM |
| F9721: Screen_Shot_2014-09-02_at_17.47.59.png |
| Nov 22 2014, 12:49 AM |
Description
Having two search submit buttons is bad for site usability. Users end up confused both what button to click and what the heck the difference between them is.
This actually got us a place in a list of things NOT to do:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/04/designing-the-holy-search-box-examples-and-best-practices/
This is basically why simplesearch was introduced in vector.
For other skins however we actually have $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm. Which when set to false replaces the unusable "Go" + "Search" with a single "Go" button and an "Advanced search" link that links to the search page and acts as a usable replacement for the fulltext search button.
Current status
- Deprecated in 1.35
- Removed in 1.36
Details
- Reference
- bz40622
| Subject | Repo | Branch | Lines +/- | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remove $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm global | mediawiki/core | master | +2 -10 | |
| Deprecate $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm | mediawiki/core | master | +8 -0 |
Related Objects
| Status | Subtype | Assigned | Task | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | None | T52039 Proposed changes to default settings (tracking) | |||
| Invalid | None | T42621 Usability should be default (tracking) | |||
| Resolved | Ammarpad | T256568 Skins should not use $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm | |||
| Resolved | Ammarpad | T42622 Deprecate and remove $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm from core |
- Duplicates Merged Here
- T194985: consider getting rid of $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm
Event Timeline
We may also want to consider making it so that the go button in the single-button form says "Search" not "Go". "Go" is a bad name for a search button.
(In reply to comment #2)
fwiw I agree. Who decides?
The decision shall be made by those who are to blame[1] for the effect the decision will cause.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MZMcBride/Blame_wheel
In all seriousness, I'd say put up a change in Gerrit and we'll see whether those who review changes will approve.
In more seriousness, I approve.
For the record, these are only used by MonoBook and CologneBlue.
Change 145517 had a related patch set uploaded by Rohan013:
$wgUseTwoButtonForm is set to false by default
Note: This is no longer used by MonoBook and not used by Vector either. Only used by mediawiki/skins/Nostalgia. Perhaps we should subst Nostalgia's two button form and rid the varirable?
Ah, Config class made it harder to find. Looked for $?wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm instead of UseTwoButtonsSearchForm.
Both MonoBook and CologneBlue actually still use it.
Wikimedia doesn't currently override this configuration variable so changing this would affect Wikimedia wikis.
Created attachment 16342
Current behaviour (UseTwoButtonsSearchForm=true)
Attached:
Created attachment 16343
Proposed behaviour (UseTwoButtonsSearchForm=false)
Attached:
As stated, we should move away from having a "Go" button. Also, please notice that the search suggestions for Monobook are now the same as Vector, so they contain both exact matches (which "go") and a final "containing..." option (which "search"es).
I suggest:
- We rename the "Go" button search, which is more consistent with the Vector search icon button.
- We drop the advanced search button, since we have it through the suggestions. If we must keep it, it needs to actually go to the advanced tab of the search page.
(In reply to Trevor Parscal from comment #11)
- We drop the advanced search button, since we have it through the
suggestions. If we must keep it, it needs to actually go to the advanced tab
of the search page.
How about hiding it with JS.
Change 145517 abandoned by Krinkle:
Set $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm false by default
Reason:
The bug is still under consideration. As it this, this feature would not be enabled by default. Patch can be re-opened or resubmitted later.
Going to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Support_desk?useskin=monobook I still see "Go" and "Search" buttons in the sidebar.
The previous comments don't explain what/who exactly this task is stalled on ("If a report is waiting for further input (e.g. from its reporter or a third party) and can currently not be acted on"). Hence resetting task status.
Alright bumped into this one today while looking at simplifying our skin architecture.
I propose we remove the UseTwoButtonsSearchForm flag. This is essentially the same as https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/mediawiki/core/+/145517/ but also allows us to remove code in CologneBlue and Monobook relating to the case where we have two.
I think maintaining 2 variants of search in Monobook and CologneBlue is not worth it.
Why are we maintaining this? Is it something controversial in our community?
Sounds good to me. If users of either skin do end up preferring to keep two buttons, then it would be trivial to have Monobook and/or CologneBlue do that explicitly the way it has effectively been doing for the past decade - but without it being a core configuration variable.
6 years later, I still agree with Trevor and my former self that this is confusing UX. Having said that, very few people are affected, and I don't think we have any incentive to change it given using Monobook is an explicit opt-in, perhaps even for this reason somehow. Anyway, I think it's minor enough that we can remove it first and restore in-skin later if needed.
Change 608215 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ammarpad; owner: Ammarpad):
[mediawiki/core@master] Deprecate $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm
Change 608215 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] Deprecate $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm
From my perspective this can be removed as part of 1.36 and resolved. No need to wait till 1.37.
Change 618420 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ammarpad; owner: Ammarpad):
[mediawiki/core@master] Remove $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm global
Change 618420 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] Remove $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm global