Re:Ask PG: Why no search box?
by Banzai10 on Wednesday June 10, 2009 @12:11PM
(#651224)
The point is that searchyc is kind of "hidden", a good percent of participants of HN don't even know their existence, maybe a redesign givin more focus to it, or enabling it use in the current design like adding it to the main page would be great. IMHO
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Absolutely.
A standard emerged in websites many years back:
* logo in in the upper left (which is also a link to the home page)
* search is a text box in the upper right.
If you're not doing it this way, you're imposing an unnecessary cognitive load on your users.
I dunno, I find it to be alright. No need to expose everything to a beginning user of HN all at once. I liken it to a game mechanic that you slowly get more items and powers as you work your way through the game. That way, they learn the interface as they go.
It's kinda part of the fun, and if you stick around long enough, you 'discover' (aka level up) little things about HN that increases your skill level at using HN.