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Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

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Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#61

Post by nend »

rosseloh wrote: post #35

On phone support calls I usually can't even get people who know what a URL, URL bar, or even a search bar, is in the first place. "The box at the top where you type in websites you want to go to." "What are you talking about? I'm computer illiterate, I can't learn any of this fancy tech stuff. I just click my facebook icon and it comes up!" These people get all sorts of confused when something happens in their browse…

Family members for me, but they don't understand the difference between the windows search box in the task bar (next to the "start" button), and google. The difference between Chrome and google.com is lost on them as well.

It's a good exercise in patience for me while we go through the steps of describing the differences between searching for things on your computer vs searching for things on the internet, what google is, etc.

They've been using the internet since I was a kid in the 90's.

I'm sure most of us have examples of this in our lives, being the de-facto "computer person" in the family. It is what it is at this point. For whatever reason, if you didn't grow up with computers, it's incredibly difficult to understand them as an adult. Which still applies to huge swaths of the worlds population.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#62

Post by JohnWhigham »

3np wrote: post #44
rosseloh wrote: post #35

On phone support calls I usually can't even get people who know what a URL, URL bar, or even a search bar, is in the first place. "The box at the top where you type in websites you want to go to." "What are you talking about? I'm computer illiterate, I can't learn any of this fancy tech stuff. I just click my facebook icon and it comes up!" These people get all sorts of confused when something happens in their browse…

> I'm computer illiterate, I can't learn any of this fancy tech stuff. This learned helplessness scares me a bit. It's like the willingness to comprehend stops at "tap". "What are you talking about, 'steering wheel'?! I'm not a greasemonkey, are you talking about the thing I turn to make the car turn?" Not knowing is one thing, refusing to take in any new knowledge is another.

People get old and obstinate. It's sad but at the end of the day, they choose to be like this.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#63

Post by dhosek »

reayn wrote: post #11
athenot wrote: post #7

I suspect that's why Apple moved the URL bar to the bottom of the screen in iOS Safari. For better or for worse, it now stands out a lot more from the search boxed within websites.

I personally think the reason was to further reduce the need to move your thumb from the bottom of the screen. The current iteration of safari is the only mobile browser I have ever used where I feel comfortable browsing and switching tabs with only one finger. It's surprisingly well implemented, though some actions (such as accessing history or site settings) take a couple extra taps.

The big challenge I have with this is that while the Safari bar is at the bottom, search within sites (say, Wikipedia) is still at the top. This ends up making it harder for me to redevelop muscle memory for searches/urls at the bottom

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#64

Post by vorpalhex »

admax88qqq wrote: post #54
phkahler wrote: post #12

This is because Google and Microsoft have confused the users by allowing them to type whatever into wherever and they just figure it out. Some would call that good UI - probably myself included - but it teaches bad behavior and makes people dumber by obscuring what things really are.

> but it teaches bad behavior I wouldn't call it bad behaviour. Why are the users behaving bad and not the interfaces? Computers are meant to serve users.

Safeguards can increase bad behavior because users come to depend on them. Removing safeguards forces users to break that dependency.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#65

Post by Miraste »

thrower123 wrote: post #24
zo1 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or "Every URL bar is made to look like a search bar". It's been 30+ years and it doesn't seem like we've been able to rethink or enhance the URL bar in any meaningful sense other than throwing search into it.

Every change to URL bars lately seems to make them less useful. Let's hide the protocol, users don't need to know whether they are connected through http, https or ftp, right? Let's make the URL bar jump about fifty pixels when you select it, so that your mouse cursor is no longer in the right place when you go to select a URL fragment.

Ah, but users know they're not connected through ftp because we deleted it from the browser!

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#66

Post by dleslie »

jpindar wrote: post #36
londons_explore wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you paste a link into the google search box, a good fraction of the time it doesn't lead you on a path to arriving at that link. For example, try the URL of this page. For me, zero results.

For me it gave one result - this page.

People trying to search it likely raised its indexing priority.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#67

Post by somedude895 »

david422 wrote: post #47
rosseloh wrote: post #35

On phone support calls I usually can't even get people who know what a URL, URL bar, or even a search bar, is in the first place. "The box at the top where you type in websites you want to go to." "What are you talking about? I'm computer illiterate, I can't learn any of this fancy tech stuff. I just click my facebook icon and it comes up!" These people get all sorts of confused when something happens in their browse…

This is my mom. Trying to walk her through steps on the phone like logins and lost passwords is a nightmare. I imagine it would be like a car mechanic trying to walk me through changing the oil over the phone. Since it's not in my interests, I just want it to work, I don't have any desire to learn it.

Same with my mum. It's really insightful to try to see things through her eyes. For example not understanding context like which app she's currently in blew my mind at first, but totally makes sense.

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#69

Post by rchaud »

coldtea wrote: post #43
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #17

People who don't know anything get confused, but this is going to be older people who are struggling to use computers, the people that call the Microsoft Edge icon "the internet". Generalizing that "users don't understand" from some autocomplete suggestions does not logically follow.

> People who don't know anything get confused, but this is going to be older people who are struggling to use computers, the people that call the Microsoft Edge icon "the internet". You'd be surprised. Research has found that the "digital native" generations (younger people born into/after the internet age) are no better at these things than the "older people" - the whole "digital native" thing is a myth in this rega…

I don't think that's true. Tech illiteracy was built in to the 'minimal' design of iOS, which influenced every mobile interface that followed. Design today is 'mobile first', meaning the starting point is to hide functionality, then add the barest minimum possible for the user to complete a task. I remember needing to switch from my tablet to a real computer when I had an issue with an Airbnb booking and couldn't find the support option.

It's why there's no such thing as an iOS/Android power user.

The vast majority of users simply accepted the defaults provided, and their ability to understand computing principles suffered due to:

- No accessible file system

- No way to sideload applications

- For ages, no support for mouse/keyboard input

- No USB mass storage

- No support for audio/video codecs other than Apple-approved ones

Re: Every search bar looks like a URL bar to users

#70

Post by marstall »

once was trying to help someone get setup on email and realized that the concept of scrolling was new to them. my mental jaw hit the floor at the difficulty she was having in grasping that concept and making it happen predictably. kids get it immediately, but she was in her 20's, so harder to learn. She was so frustrated and I totally got it.
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