Our product team evaluated 13 elements of the current Yahoo search header to identify opportunities to boost engagement and optimize design and functionality of the search box. After testing various combinations, Yahoo released the new "Magical Header" that leverages these improvements and insights.

Once the Magical Header was released across Yahoo.com, users engaged more with the new search results page. Users also stayed on the page longer and clicked on more ads and algo results. They typed in +2% more searches in the search box and fewer of these searches were for alternative search engines. The abandonment rate and search engine switch rate both decreased by ~5%. The final result was a +3% increase in revenue.

Old Header:

New Header:

Highlights of these improvements include:

• Taller search box outlined in grey glow instead of purple
• "Search" text replaced with magnifier icon
• Yahoo logo moved to the right
• Improved Mail icon with unread email alerts
• Improved user profile icon with profile picture
• Added dialpad module that takes the user to favorite Yahoo verticals and user settings
• Increased spacing and added line separator below the search box
• Updated search filters (web, images, video, more), with font color bolded light grey from red
• Added hover on search filter to change font color to black with bolded font

The Magical Header has launched on search.yahoo.com and fully hosted YHS pages on desktop. This update should lead to higher user engagement and revenue.

Download the Magical Header case study study here.