Recently I’ve seen several websites that are ‘hiding’ the site search functionality. I don’t understand why… and I don’t like it. It’s hard enough to find what you’re looking for in a lot of modern navigation bars. Now with just a search ‘icon’, it makes it even harder to find. Here’s two of the many examples I’ve seen lately:
Rally Software
![Rally search - DaveTavres.com Rally search - DaveTavres.com](https://davetavres.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image_thumb2.png)
DealNews.com
![DealNews search - DaveTavres.com DealNews search - DaveTavres.com](https://davetavres.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image_thumb3.png)
I think it’s much easier to quickly scan for that search text field – everyone is use to it, it’s easier to find than a single icon that could be lost with other icons and it can just as easily be reduced to save space but automatically expand when a user clicks into the field.
Facebook is certainly not winning award for ‘best in user experience’, but one thing that hasn’t change is the search box. It’s there… small and large.
Facebook 2007 vs. 2013
![Facebook 2007 - DaveTavres.com Facebook 2007 - DaveTavres.com](https://davetavres.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image_thumb4.png)
![Facebook 2013 - DaveTavres.com Facebook 2013 - DaveTavres.com](https://davetavres.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/image_thumb5.png)
Some things just shouldn’t change…