I have an application where the user performs a search and is then presented with search results. The input field that the user used to enter the query remains populated with the search query and any checkboxes that were used to drill down the search. The search section is a header section that remains persistent on every page. When clicking on one of the actual items from the search results the user is taken to a page with details for the item. My question is when leaving the search results page to navigate to one of the items from the search results, should the search input still contain the query of the search performed?
1 Answer
Probably it is not a good idea to keep the search query. The user might think that what is on the screen is the (only) result of the shown query.
If your user takes a screenshot, that screenshot displays a search query and below, what seems to be, the results (or the only result), which is not the case.
If a second user starts using the web at that point, he might think that what he is seeing is the only search result.
However, it might be a good idea to let the user know (with a label for example) that what he is seeing belongs to the results from a certain search.
