| I came up with the concept of the "double-keypress" (a la mouse double-click) to solve the problem of selecting the search engine without any clicking: https://zz.leftium.com/ - First of all, search bangs actually already removed the need to click the "search" button. - However, I wanted to support multiline input (on a mobile virtual keyboard.) - ENTER,ENTER solves this. (Double-keypress ENTER) - I also wanted the search box to filter the list of 10,000+ available search bangs. - So Q,Q selects the first entry; W,W the next; and so on... (The first Q must be uppercase, but the following Q may be lowercase to support how mobile virtual keyboards work) - (Notice Q is right under the key for 1; W under 2; and so on ) I have to tune the double-keypress UX (often I initiate a search when I just want a newline.) Perhaps I will also add triple-keypress. |
So a simple return makes a newline, and two quick returns have a different meaning. I like that.
The way I support multiline is via the little triangle in the search bar. I think I'll keep it, because it is easier to discover. The double-return would need some kind of textual hint. Like when you press enter once, a little hint could pop up below the search area telling you that to leave the text entry, you can hit enter twice.
And on mobile I rarely use multiline searches I think. On the Desktop I use shift-return to create a newline.