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We have a large application where sections of its UI may be hard to find. In an attempt to ease the user's navigation path, we plan on offering "shortcuts" from the Search functionality within the application.

Below is a quick mockup. As you can see, when someone types in a query, there will be two (2) sets of results - one are links to Support articles, while the other are links that directly jump to particular sections in the UI, both results are relevant to the query of course.

enter image description here

What do you think about offering this feature?

Part of me is telling me that these "shortcut" links should just be mentioned in the Support articles themselves, then when the user clicks on them, it'll take them directly to the that particular section in the UI instead of creating a "whole-nother" subset of results; especially that both links can contain the same words.

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  • Question went well till last section. What is the last paragraph stating ? Can you rephrase it?
    – Ashwin Kulkarni
    Jun 25, 2020 at 3:14
  • @AshwinKulkarni - Sorry, I meant to say that, I don't fully think this section is necessary. I feel like these links should all be displayed from the actual Support documents, and the users can navigate from there. Let me know if that makes sense. Thank you.
    – J Bo
    Jun 25, 2020 at 4:01

3 Answers 3

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I see no harm in having the direct (shortcut) link and the support page in the search results. What it makes confusing is that the links can have (almost) the same name. You can make them more distinct by adding "How to ..." or "About ... " to the support pages.

I also would prioritize the direct links over the support pages and keep related items together:

enter image description here

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its a great idea to do both sections and just like JazzRO said just use proper labels for the Supported Articles and Take me there

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  • Could you expand on your answer. Right now it's closer to a comment than an answer.
    – Mayo
    Nov 23, 2020 at 14:03
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This is a sound option for sure. I would support it by a hover state for the 'take me to' links - either preview where they are going to or change screen position - that way there is a strong connection of action/reaction in the UI.

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