[huangm]

This was an intentional choice. It attempts to fight duplicate questions by forcing users to see the search results for their question before asking it.

I don't claim this to be the right design choice, but it is worth noting that there are trade-offs to consider. Optimizing for "ease of asking new questions by new users" is probably not optimal.

[gfodor]

I suppose I see the tradeoff, but it sounds like an idea to me that went over well in a design meeting but never actually was user tested (I could be wrong?) There are other ways to ensure a user doesn't ask a duplicate question without having to convolute the search box with the "ask question" use case, which is certainly less common.

It was incredibly confusing to me, a software guy, so I can't imagine how confusing it must be to the average user.

[jdp23]

It's been user tested for many months now and the results are a consistent stream of confused users and duplicate questions. The response: long-timers there moan about how stupid the new users are.

[rst]

For me, too often, it works the other way. I try to use it as a search box, but if I type in a phrase and hit return (as I'm accustomed to do with search boxes elsewhere), it instead tries to add a question. I wind up having to use the arrow keys to select something else in order to make it do a search.

(This is with Ubuntu Lucid's stock FF3 on Linux, if it matters.)

[techiferous]

But keep in mind that all users are new users to begin with, so don't underestimate the value of optimizing design for them.

As far as the existing "solution" of conflating search and adding a question, I give it an F. It has tripped me up before. I suggest going back to the drawing board.

[jdp23]

Except the way it's implemented, it's very easy to add a question without searching for it.

[tzs]

> This was an intentional choice. It attempts to fight duplicate questions by forcing users to see the search results for their question before asking it.

It fails.

When I type a word that matches a topic and hit "enter", it sometimes goes to that topic, and sometimes it goes to the "add question" pop-up.

When I type a word that does not match a topic but matches the body of some answers, it usually goes to the "add question" pop-up when I hit enter.

I have not been able to discern how it decides which of these it is going to do.

While I was experimenting with it, it got stuck in a state where it always went to the "add question" pop-up. I could only search by clicking on one of the suggested search results.

If they intended this thing to discourage asking questions before searching, then someone goofed, and their testers are non-existant or incompetent.

[richardw]

Why not call the box 'search', which is what new users should be doing at first anyway? If they find nothing then offer to help them formulate a question.

The very last thing I want to do is sign up all my facebook friends and then ask a dumb question as my first action. The odds that I have a great question at the point of registration are pretty low.