Allow disabling search input spelling corrections
#4112
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maxgds
approved these changes
Jul 24, 2024
As part of our work on site search, we've discovered a pain point where
mobile browsers' autocorrection features mess up user queries,
especially when it comes to domain specific terminology. For example,
searches for "HMRC" are frequently autocorrected to "Hercules", or
searches for "SORN" to "sworn".
As our new site search engine used by Search API v2 is much better at
implicitly handling misspelled user queries than the previous search
engine, we want to allow disabling all mobile browser attempts at second
guessing what the user has typed as the end result tends to be worse
with two separate spellchecks turning into a game of query telephone.
- Add `disable_corrections` parameter to `search` component that can be
set to true to disable both `autocorrect` and `autocapitalize`
attributes on the search input field [^1]
[^1]: Note that there is little by way of standardisation for this
behaviour, and indeed MDN refers to the `autocorrect` attribute as
Safari-only, but in practice Chrome for Android honours it as well,
see https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40335663
csutter
added a commit
that referenced
this pull request
Jul 24, 2024
This applies the `disable_corrections` setting from #4112 to the `search` components used in the `layout_super_navigation_header` and `layout_header` components. We expect this to improve the quality of search results for users on mobile as their browsers will no longer excessively autocorrect, and in case of genuine misspellings, the site search engine can cope with that well anyway.
This was referenced Jul 24, 2024
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csutter
added a commit
to alphagov/frontend
that referenced
this pull request
Jul 30, 2024
As part of our work on site search, we've discovered a pain point where mobile browsers' autocorrection features mess up user queries, especially when it comes to domain specific terminology. For example, searches for "HMRC" are frequently autocorrected to "Hercules", or searches for "SORN" to "sworn". - Bump `govuk_publishing_components` to 40.1.0 - Set `disable_corrections` parameter to `search` component in homepage header See: alphagov/govuk_publishing_components#4112
csutter
added a commit
to alphagov/finder-frontend
that referenced
this pull request
Jul 30, 2024
As part of our work on site search, we've discovered a pain point where mobile browsers' autocorrection features mess up user queries, especially when it comes to domain specific terminology. For example, searches for "HMRC" are frequently autocorrected to "Hercules", or searches for "SORN" to "sworn". - Set `disable_corrections` parameter for all uses of `search` component See: alphagov/govuk_publishing_components#4112
csutter
added a commit
to alphagov/finder-frontend
that referenced
this pull request
Jul 30, 2024
As part of our work on site search, we've discovered a pain point where mobile browsers' autocorrection features mess up user queries, especially when it comes to domain specific terminology. For example, searches for "HMRC" are frequently autocorrected to "Hercules", or searches for "SORN" to "sworn". - Set `disable_corrections` parameter for all uses of `search` component See: alphagov/govuk_publishing_components#4112
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What
disable_correctionsparameter tosearchcomponent that can be set to true to disable bothautocorrectandautocapitalizeattributes on the search input field 1Why
As part of our work on site search, we've discovered a pain point where mobile browsers' autocorrection features mess up user queries, especially when it comes to domain specific terminology. For example, searches for "HMRC" are frequently autocorrected to "Hercules", or searches for "SORN" to "sworn".
As our new site search engine used by Search API v2 is much better at implicitly handling misspelled user queries than the previous search engine, we want to allow disabling all mobile browser attempts at second guessing what the user has typed as the end result tends to be worse with two separate spellchecks turning into a game of query telephone.
Behaviour
Before
After
(note that the autocorrect suggestions are still displayed, but not automatically applied)
Footnotes
Note that there is little by way of standardisation for this behaviour, and indeed MDN refers to the
autocorrectattribute as Safari-only, but in practice Chrome for Android honours it as well, see https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40335663 ↩