 <blockquote> <p>The HTML search form will contain text fields, many select dropdowns and some checkboxes. Can anyone offer any advice, best practice, design patterns or resources to assist with this kind of problem.</p> </blockquote> <p>I would suggest that Google exemplifies the best UI for search. Don't give me a lot of fiddly fields, just one text field so I can type "Shirley Jones UAF"</p>