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Near the top of our home page, we have a search bar. Next to the search bar is a VIEW ALL button:

search bar

The VIEW ALL button takes the user to the same place that the SEARCH button would go if no text was entered. (There is also a menu item in the main navigation which also takes the user to a list page.)

We are split on whether or not to keep the VIEW ALL button.

ARGUMENTS FOR KEEPING IT: It's not clear that the SEARCH button will take the user to a list of everything. I.E., the user will think "I don't want to search, I just want to view browse them all".

ARGUMENTS FOR REMOVING IT: It's redundant functionality.

So, from a UX perspective, is it better to have both buttons, or just the one?

** I know I'm not providing full context, and I'd love to provide a link to the site or an image to the entire homepage, but that's not possible.

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  • What does your user testing results suggest? Apr 28, 2017 at 7:32
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    "View all" what? News, Users, Articles, Address,... This concept is too broad to be placed in such a generic place. You should place it in specific page. Apr 28, 2017 at 11:23
  • How many results are there if no search term is entered? And is it relevant/useful to have a list of it all?
    – jazZRo
    Apr 28, 2017 at 12:37
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    If the website is specific enough that @MaisaBarros's well-made point doesn't apply, and if there's no issues over space for including it, then I'd say it could be useful: some people won't associate "searching for an empty string" with "viewing everything" (justifiably, since some search functions won't let you do this).
    – TripeHound
    Jul 27, 2017 at 10:09
  • Clicking the Search button with no text in the field isn't something people will think to do. So I wouldn't say that the View All is redundant. Keep it. Jul 27, 2017 at 12:45

3 Answers 3

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It is better to remove that VIEW ALL button and go with the only search button. you also have alternatives like.

  1. if possible provide filters for the remaining list. like the one google uses.enter image description here

  2. You can show the basic search list at the first time and include show more button at the bottom of the list.

enter image description here

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What about alternating button text: "View All" if search box is empty and "Search" when you enter search text?

That keeps your design and makes it clear to the user.

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You should show search button prominently instead of View all too. Add view all button or tag in the list page where you are redirecting the user after clicking the search button.

You can give advance search kind of thing in which user can select different parameters to search. So this would be easy for the user to come to know that what kind of data they will have.

Another solution is put placeholder Text in search bar like "Search for username or location...etc." It is the name of parameters for that you are allowing to search.

As per the UX perspective, you should not mention view all button.

If you want to give view all feature then show all the list at the time of clicking on search button only i.e. without entering any search keywords.

Here I have attached some images for the reference that you can use to give view all functionality.

In short, don't show view all button prominently. enter link description here

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