RE: Find as you type for navigation

To use "Find as you Type" for links in order to navigate web pages we need a
simple principle easy to understand and to work right away with no need to
think about what to type. Only considering the first letter of the link
text, or rather to start from the first letter, is far superior to any other
scheme.

Not just for you and me but for any user, it is much easier just to skim a
page for the first letter in links. It is much harder to have to read the
link in order to decide for some great "keyword" that will just take you
there.

When link matches are returned it is much easier only to have to consider
the first letter, and if you are not satisfied just to press F3 to get to
the next match. 

By using only the first character we need only to type one character and
since only the first character of the link text is considered only very few
matches will be returned.

If we love to type more than one character we can still do it but only
counting from the first character.

Now, the above is just my opinion based on what I consider my flair for
usability and on my experience and knowledge of usability. But this is a
good case that could be easily tested in a usability lab.

I would like to bet almost anything that I am not proven wrong.

Best regards,

Jesper Tverskov
www.smackthemouse.com

Received on Thursday, 27 July 2006 19:01:33 UTC