The best way to do this...

[tinkerdan]

I have a character searching for something with hands on the upper shelves while scanning the shelves they can reach and have them calling it::

a 'by look and feel' search

I use double quotes for dialogue so single quotes for this.
However I was thinking possibly

by-look-and-feel
or
by look-and-feel

However because look and feel has wedged itself into the mainstream with software GUI's; my search has been mostly diverted.

I'm sure there might be some cliche or trope for what my character is doing, but at the time this felt right.

Maybe there are some ideas out there.

I didn't want to say rifling because that's not quite exactly what they are doing.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

What about calling it a fingertip search? Would that work?

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I would say the correct punctuation for what you're doing is

by look-and-feel search

because "by" isn't part of the descriptor, and there's really no need for quotation marks around any of it, if I understand you correctly. If you did want them, it would be

by 'look-and-feel search'.

In my house, this is called "look with your hands, not with your eyes".

 

[Brian G Turner]

Why not just simplify it and have the character just say they did a search?

 

[tinkerdan]

I was leaning in that direction--the: by look-and-feel search

by look-and-feel search

because "by" isn't part of the descriptor, and there's really no need for quotation marks around any of it, if I understand you correctly. If you did want them, it would be

by 'look-and-feel search'.

Obviously the quotes meant that for some reason I wanted attention drawn to it; however I don't want sore thumb exposure as much as to say something more than that it was just a search.

This is a good point and if I comes down to it in the final edits it might work to clean things up;

Why not just simplify it and have the character just say they did a search?

However I purposely left out the context for a reason on this question.

I wasn't thinking just of a search because in my mind I was thinking on several levels of context and POV and thought that a search might be conducted by someone who was hoping to find something without any firm knowledge that this was the place to look.

Rifling brought to mind lets say someone searching for a wrench in the least organized worker's toolbox. He knows the wrench should be there and he needs it in a hurry and it has to be under that rat's-nest that's staring back at him.

Then there's the emergency kit aboard an emergency vehicle. It's organized by the people using it and they know were everything is to the tune of being able to keep their focus on the patient while one hand reaches out and lightly touches things until 'ah ha' and they pull what they need knowing they have the right thing in their hand without having to look at it.

And then you have several decks with the same--similar--kit that should have the same specific items inside on every level; however no set standard about where each item should be and this isn't your usual level and you're in a hurry--but not a mad rush--you know what it looks like and what it feels like and that it's in here somewhere and you're trained to multi-task so you are feeling on shelves you can't full observe while scanning the ones that are in plain view.

I agree that simple would make it easier.
It might take a few edits to determine if I want to make the easy choice.

Thanks for the thought though because in this instance I hadn't reached the point of trying to step back and examine that very point.