Prefer query correction when the user has already submitted a free-form search and the system has a high-confidence spelling, token, split, join, or phrase correction for that submitted query.
Prefer query correction when the user has already submitted a free-form search and the system has a high-confidence spelling, token, split, join, or phrase correction for that submitted query.
Practice the judgment: Imagine this situation: The product silently rewrites the search field from benifit appeel to benefit appeal and users lose the original wording. Write the person's goal, choose one of these patterns, and show the state that helps the person continue. Use the decision rules and source trail below to explain your choice.
Review the underlying principle →| Dimension | Query correction | Search suggestions | No-results recovery | Autocomplete |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UI or UX | UI + UX - Submitted search query correction and did-you-mean result state | UI + UX - Suggested-query surface | UI + UX - Search recovery state | UI + UX - Input widget with suggestion behavior |
| UI guidance | Show the original submitted query and the corrected query in the result state, for example Showing results for benefit appeal with a Search instead for benifit appeel control. | Keep suggestions visually tied to the current input. | Render zero-result copy, active criteria, remove-filter actions, and alternative suggestions. | Expose clear visual states for expanded, focused, highlighted, and selected options. |
| UX guidance | Use query correction to recover from likely spelling, spacing, transposition, or phrase mistakes after a user submits a free-form search. | Help the person reach a clear task outcome. | Help users recover when their own search or filters excluded all results. | Preserve typed input and make selection reversible before submission. |
| Good UI | A results page says Showing results for benefit appeal, marks benefit and appeal as corrected tokens, and offers Search instead for benifit appeel. | Suggestions appear directly below the search field with active row, readable labels, and optional matched text. | Zero-result state shows query/filters, result count, and clear or broaden actions. | Persistent label above the input, readable text size, clear popup alignment, and visible highlighted option. |
| Bad UI | The search field silently changes benifit appeel to benefit appeal and the original query is gone. | Promoted results styled the same as typed query suggestions. | Huge empty state that hides active filters. | Placeholder-only label that disappears after typing. |
| Good UX | A user searches benifit appeel, sees corrected results for benefit appeal, checks the changed tokens, and can switch back to the original query. | Users can keep typing, choose a suggestion, dismiss suggestions, or submit their own query. | Users can remove one filter, clear all, edit query, or try suggested alternatives. | Typing filters suggestions while preserving the exact typed value. |
| Bad UX | The UI reports zero results for an obvious typo even though a high-confidence correction is available. | Auto-submitting the top suggestion. | Telling users nothing exists when filters caused the state. | Automatically forcing the first suggestion into the field. |
| Best fit | Users submit free-form searches where spelling and typing mistakes commonly block useful results. | The system can predict likely queries. | Search, browse, or filter controls can produce an empty result set. | The list is long but values are known. |
| Avoid when | The input is a constrained value selector better served by autocomplete. | Suggestions are low quality or biased toward irrelevant content. | The state is caused by an error rather than valid empty results. | The task is open-ended query exploration. |
| Required state | Auto-applied correction state showing corrected results, original query, changed tokens, and search-original action. | Typing state with suggestions. | Zero-result state that preserves the user's criteria. | Empty input state. |
| Accessibility burden | Announce correction status and result counts through a polite status region after submission. | Expose the suggestions list and active option. | Announce result-count changes where search results update dynamically. | Expose combobox expanded state, active descendant, and option labels. |
| Common misuse | Treating every fuzzy or semantic match as a corrected query. | Showing unrelated promoted results as suggestions. | Resetting all criteria automatically. | Using autocomplete where users expect broad search results. |