Location switcher and search

HI all,

I have just conducted some testing on my site and it has highlighted a couple of things that have confused users.

I was wandering if you could help me with any suggestions or insight.

I am using the geotravel theme

1.Search results offer no sorting options

I am aware that this is not possible but as the widget for searching is the main focus on the main page this is the go to and people miss the location switcher.
Bringing the location switcher into the main page doesn’t look as elegant.
The nature of my site would require this as a minimum being a travel site.
Do you have any suggestions,coding or work around on this?

2. Location switcher takes you to a view all location page.

The general response to this is the view all location page is not required as you will always click view all to get through to the results. Also some people missed the view all link as they were expecting to already be looking at search results.

Can the location switcher take you straight to the places page and bypass this unnecessary step?

3. Location switcher in menu disappears when you remove the mouse from it.
is there a way to keep the location switcher open when a search is running as a lot of people moved their mouse away and kept getting frustrated with this as they thought their search was gone.

4. Location switcher. User has to click on location from drop down after search is completed.
Some users were confused by this as the other search function has a search button that then takes them to the page. It just seems a little inconsistent.
Can we apply a search button to the location switcher?

5.Location switcher on mobile phones.
After typing a search on mobile phones there is a select option.
A lot of users weren’t aware that there was another step to this search by choosing from drop down as it would be the 3rd drop down required when searching from a mobile site.

This comes back to point 4.) is there a way to add a search button to the location switcher.

6. Is there away for the location switcher and location field in the search bar to predict as you type.
So as i type Germany will it finish my word as GER?

Thanks for all the continued support.