[Archive]

Posted By: Matt

Scott - here is my advice, having written my share of web applications - you've combined two functionalities:
1) Browse by auction
2) Search all auctions

Currently, when the user first comes in, they see a prompt to "select auction" with no mention that doing so is only if they want to browse by auction. If, instead of the generic "select auction" it said "browse past auction" it would help. Even better would be to split the functionalities into different lines:
"Browse past auction:"
OR
"Search all auctions:"

However, the way it is usually designed (this will require some back end changes) is to have "ALL" available in the first listbox. That gives the user the ability to search within any auction or within all past auctions. If the search text is blank, then it just returns all listings for the specified auction.