My Least Favorite UI Control

*to view control in action: http://bit.ly/19Qb5T

Issues:

• A tab control that doesn't look like a tab.
• A tab-like presentation below instead of above the tab content.
• A tab used as a toggle to show/hide just one entry field.
• An entry field that seems to serve double duty yet is mutually exclusive, i.e. the user can only search by a City OR a Postal Code. Because a user can enter the City and Postal Code sequentially, he may assume that he is searching on the combination of his two inputs. However, his search results will be based solely on the last entry.
  
• Radius dropdown menu has label embedded and no reasonable default. (If user does not make a selection, when the search is enabled the radius defaults to 20 miles in the search results list. Therefore, would expect the radius default on the entry screen to be 20 miles.)
• Actions: the user can Save this search and have the results emailed to him or he can perform the Search. Based on placement, it is not clear that these are the action choices.
  

Suggested Layout (based on same amount of screen real estate as control above):








Design Suggestions:

• Use radio buttons to present mutually exclusive choices.
  
• Disable field associated with deselected radio button.
  
• Enable field associated with selected radio button.
• Provide an appropriate default for the Radius dropdown.
• Present action choices next to each other to emphasize that the user can select Action A or Action B.