[RFC] Switch positions of the search icons

[Dragosvr92]

The settings wheel and the search magnifier icons should be reversed in my opinion.
The place of the search icon has always been at the end of the input area. Not only on phpbb, but everywhere on the world wide web for decades.

People always look to click the last icon by instinct because they know it should be there.

[Pony99CA]

I don't have a problem with the current position.

I would suggest changing the Advanced Search icon, though (maybe a magnifying glass with a "+" in or on it). The gear usually means "Settings", not "Advanced Search".

Steve

[Dragosvr92]

Maybe you dont, but for many it can seem very inconvenient. As i said, the place of the magnifier was always at the end of the search input.
People always look there to click to go on with their search.

In my opinion, it should look like this:

Capture.PNG (4.82 KiB) Viewed 12295 times

And not like this..... As it currently is.

Capture1.PNG (2.21 KiB) Viewed 12294 times

The wheel seems okay imo... The advanced search does include various settings.
On another site, they use a wheel too, as seen bellow.

kickass.PNG (1.71 KiB) Viewed 12294 times

What you are saying does make a little more sense, but having two magnifiers near another can cause a little confusion if you dont pay attention and notice theres a little + sign overlayed on it.

[DavidIQ]

I think it looks backwards on whatever site you took a screenshot of. To me it makes it seem like the box has something to do with settings instead of with searching.

[Pony99CA]

Maybe you dont, but for many it can seem very inconvenient. As i said, the place of the magnifier was always at the end of the search input.

What do you mean "always"? In ProSilver on phpBB 3.0, there is no magnifier button, just a Search button (and an Advanced Search link below). There is magnifier image on the left of the search input field, but I believe that's just a background image, not a button.

Are you using some other style?

People always look there to click to go on with their search.

In my opinion, it should look like this:

Capture.PNG

And not like this..... As it currently is.

Capture1.PNG

The key word that you used is "look". People will still look at the end of the input field and now they'll see two icons. I think they'll figure out that the magnifying glass is for searching. It will take them maybe a few fractions of a second longer, at worst.

Steve

[Dragosvr92]

Weather it is a a magnifier icon or a search text, it does the same function when clicked.
I didnt say in prosilver. I meant in general about its position on every known web site.

The last search icon/text-button was always reserved for going on with searching what text you typed into.
It should remain that way. The settings should be before the search button.

The wheel is in the search input area, so it stands for itself that it symbolises search settings imo...

[MattF]

The current implementation is correct. The search action button is connected/related to the search input field. It doesn't make sense to stick what is just a link to an entirely new page in between the search input field and it's submit button (especially since the field data doesn't carry over to the new search page).

The current design was arrived at by the developers and community in a topic spanning some 30 pages. The only fault in it, is that there is no perfect icon to signify that the link is for the Advanced Search page (it's not a settings page). So I think another idea, would have been to use a normal search bar design pattern, and have the hyperlink to the search page below the bar, as we used to do in 3.0.x

a very rushed example:

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 11.34.32 PM.png (7.63 KiB) Viewed 12208 times

Or if the one line design is preferred, this would also be an appropriate alternative:

Screen Shot 2015-01-23 at 11.53.59 PM.png (6.98 KiB) Viewed 12208 times

[Dragosvr92]

I believe the change i suggested is the most appropriate to what it should be. But to be honest, separating the settings icon as you suggested also looks fine to me. Every site has the setting wheel icon for advanced search. Even Google does. Im repeating, as long as the settings wheel is inside the search input area, it stands for itself, and makes perfect sense that it represents the search settings.