Summary

Users expect first letter navigation when they type into a combo box for selecting states or countries. In other words, if they type "T," they expect to see results of states starting with the letter T, like Tennessee, Texas, etc. The current way the combo box functions is to show all results containing the letter "t", so for example Connecticut may show up in results, confusing users.

Observations

4 out of 5 participants in usability testing were confused by the search results. They were tasked with selecting "Texas" from U.S. states combo box in a form prototype. Those 4 users typed "T" and were confused that they did not get results for only states starting with "T," and often would just scroll down the whole list to get to Texas. One users commented that that would be especially annoying if you were navigating a long list of 200+ countries.

Video clips 🔒

Affected user groups

• All users
• Screen reader users
• Screen magnification users

Research method

Usability testing with 5 visually impaired participants. See findings report for details.

Recommendations for next steps

Currently there are no clear solution recommendations. The team discussed whether the unexpected behaviors could be avoided by updating the combo box results to be sorted by relevance rather than alphabetically. Another possibility is adding screen reader instructions to enter a search term. Is it possible or recommended to implement first-letter navigation?

Next steps

Decide on a solution to mitigate the friction users experience with unexpected search results and test it again in a new round of usability testing.