When entering multiple search terms in to a search input. Which keys should be used to make the search term a visible tag before final form submission? The industry standard is either separating each keyword with a comma or using the tab key, however the feedback that I got was it might not be intuitive to the user to use the tab key or commas.

  • How about space? – Tom Doodler Sep 14 '16 at 13:46
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    This is one of those questions that can only be answered by your particular users - You could test in a number of ways including A-B/Multi-variant tests and surveys. ('Space' could fall over pretty quickly if you're allowing multi-word tags) – Andrew Martin Sep 14 '16 at 19:08

If this is a "pillbox" style input you are referencing -

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Then you could allow multiple options as long as they are not allowed characters in your tags: comma, space, return, clicking outside the tag area itself, all might be valid ways of "registering" the tag.


Enter might be abetter option. That usually helps in educating the user that multiple items are allowed

In an ideal flow, with only single item, users usually (if not always) press enter with the intent of continuing to the next step. In this case, the next step, i am guessing, is to enter multiple items instead of 1.

On the flip side, a user who wants to enter only single item, will have a non intuitive flow if he presses enter

So it might be helpful to udnerstand how many users are currently using single vs. multiple items in the field.

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