Had a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the site modifications, updates, and new content that's been in the works. One of the things that came out of the meeting is that there are people who are not aware enough of the site they're using to find the search box.
No doubt this is true. I don't doubt some people are incapable of "seeing" the search box, which is prominently located in the upper-left of the page. Personally I think we've done all we can. If someone is incapable of finding the search box even after it is described then they are probably also unlikely to understand how to perform a search at all.
The staff, however, felt that we should provide a bit more "direction" in conjunction with the description. Ideas were thrown around about how to do this, such as arrows popping up pointing in the direcition of the search tool. Or maybe a "guide" popping up and "leading" the user to the search tool. While these might have been interesting exercises in interactivity I think they'd prove to be of dubious value to the user.
As a compromise I set up a link that uses the ID as an anchor, focuses the input box, and flashes yellow behind the search tool. The ID as anchor and the flashing background only work for newer browsers. I did, however, make the input focus compatible with both new and old browsers (after initially ignoring those browsers, but that's not the way I should be coding). Hopefully those modifications will be sufficient to "highlight" the search.
