A few months ago search on the DevHub was changed to instead open a modal in the middle of the page. While it is fancy, it is not as usable as the old search bar with the autosuggest beneath it used to be. I gave it some time so I could try to get used to it, but it has proven to have a few fatal flaws.
This modal does an excellent job replacing the old whole-page search page, but it is not an acceptable replacement for the compact autosuggest.
Currently, this modal bothers me in two important ways:
First, it is unexpected and requires I think before I can use it. The majority of websites with search functionality do not do this. Instead, the autosuggest dropdown is typically the standard (even see the search bar on Roblox.com). Because this modal opens when you click into the input, and because when I click into the input I expect to start typing immediately, and because I am focused on the small search bar in the corner, it is extremely jarring to have the location of the input suddenly move into the middle of the screen away from where I’m looking. It is a mental scramble to back up and refocus on this modal in the middle of the screen, and since this UI is novel, it is harder than it should be to remember how to use it. Finally, because I first needed to click into the input to start typing there, it is jarring to then need to move my mouse back into the middle of the screen to click on what should be a quickly accessible API page; previously, this was fast since the autosuggest was all constrained to that corner - my mouse and my eyes did not need to travel far. This all needlessly makes using the DevHub slower and more mentally straining, which pulls me out of my working mindset.
Second, it has a slow animation, and is not as snappy as the search bar. Often when I go to the DevHub, I have something copied that I plan to look up to get to the API page for. When I click into the input and do the Ctrl+V shortcut, often I am faster than the modal can open, which results in my paste getting eaten and nothing happening, which is jarring and again, slows me down, requires I stop and think, and pulls me out of my focus. The animations have a similar effect, I catch myself blinking when I open the search modal so I can try to buffer them out; they make searching tedious and make me mentally pause every time I open the search modal, which is anti-UX since my only goal is to find some information and get back to work.
The search modal design is just not suitable for an API reference’s primary search function. I want to go fast, but it slows me down.
I would like another attempt at improving the autosuggest design be made - while it had some trouble with deciding what category of pages to show, I believe this is solvable by means of collapsible sections, or tabs on a slightly larger popover.
This modal should instead be on a button by the search bar or on a button in the autosuggest dropdown instead of opening automatically when you click on the search bar (e.g. a More / All Results button at the top/bottom of the results list). This being on a button would eliminate how unexpected it is, and by extension wouldn’t get in the way of pasting for quick searches.
