It’s been a bit longer than normal between posts for me, but, have been well engaged! Great activity for me :).

Recent projects have had me doing a lot of work on search. Highly complex query builders for searching big databases… 72 million plus records a day. Yeah.. That’s big.

OK, big deal.  Well, there’s a small concept that is easily overlooked in these scenarios that will greatly increase the usability of your product:

Input is as Input does… take advantage of the mental model established by the data input form by reflecting  it throughout when searching for, or displaying that data.

There are a good number of reasons why this strategy pays off, not the least of which is the leverage you get from repeating the users mental model:

…the advantages of mental models all begin with 
the letter “C”:

♦ Confidence in Your Design—guide the design of the solution 

♦ Clarity in Direction—make good user and business decisions

♦ Continuity of Strategy—ensure longevity of vision and opportunity

-Mental Models by Indi Young Rosenfeld Media, 2008; version 1.1

The huge win here is that once your user has entered the data seeing it in an edit or read only view that reflects their input screen creates IMMEDIATE recognition.  In a search form, it also allows them to trace back mentally to specific values they may have entered in particular fields and speeds their search process to find the records they’re looking for.

Next is the ease with which standards can be created for developers to work with.  Starting with the selections or number of data inputs allowed per field in your input form allows you to easily define rules for searching that data.  Those rules could look something like this:

Free form text values:  text input box

 Choice between two options: radio buttons

Selection of one or many values out of 1-5 options: Checkboxes or Dropdown  menu depending on transparency and space requirements

 

 
Selection of one value from up to 20 values: Dropdown menu

Multiple value selections from a list over 5: Add/Remove Select Box

Now you’ve got an easy to replicate, easy to follow set of standards to use for input , edit and search.  Instant design patterns library!

Ultimately you have developed a very efficient cycle that promotes patterns, supports the users mental model,  and reuses code.  Nice job.