Re: [Evolution] Search boxes and UI meddling

["Patrick O'Callaghan" <poc usb ve>]

Totally agree. I'm nervous every time I search. Should I use the Search
menu, or the Search box? Do they do the same thing or not? What about
Advanced Search? Is it going to make me give a name to save the search
or can I use it just once? etc. etc.

The whole thing needs to be rethought IMHO.

BTW, I didn't even realize the little magnifying glass was clickable!
Its location makes it functionally invisible and it lacks what the CHI
people call "affordance".

poc

On Fri, 2007-02-09 at 10:54 -0500, Andrew Montalenti wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been an Evolution user for a long time.  The main reason I use
> Evolution is for its search/indexing features, since I have huge mail
> boxes and like to be able to search through them quickly.
>
> In recent versions of Evolution (I guess beyond 2.7, I'm using 2.8.1)
> the Search Box at the top of the message view was "redesigned".  I think
> this redesign was actually a step backward, and would like to know if
> other people have raised this concern.
>
> Aside from the silliness that the box is just too small, I don't
> understand why it seems to make sense to have a click on the tiny icon
> of a magnifying glass change in what part of a message you are
> searching, and to click a paint brush to clear the message (you may tell
> me that's a broom, but at that size, it's a paint brush).  When I am
> searching within a message, I don't even know I am because the gray text
> for "Message contains" only appears when my search query is empty.
> Considering these searches are "sticky" to the folder I'm in, I may very
> well return back to a folder I previously searched for "dinner" and not
> know whether I search the subject/sender or the message itself, unless I
> click that silly magnifying glass again.
>
> I also don't get why the "Show" pull down exists.  I think it would make
> more sense if that Show pull down showed _your_ saved searches, rather
> than some hard coded ones some other developer thought I'd find useful.
> I don't even use labels (and why should I, Evolution doesn't even let me
> customize them), but even so in the "Show" menu I have not one but six
> options related to labels.  Likewise, I don't use Evolution's built-in
> Junk mail filtering (I use spam assassin externally since for some
> reason it's much faster that way), and have another wasted option there
> for "Messages Not Junk".  Less than half the options are therefore even
> usable by me, but I can't get rid of them and what's even more
> frustrating is that any of them could be emulated by a Saved Search,
> which _don't_ show up there.
>
> Does anyone else agree with me as to the silliness of these UI
> redesigns?  I hate to be a whiner and if I had more than a few moments
> I'd scratch the itches myself, but I really would like to know what
> inspired these steps backward, and see if there is any agreement about
> undoing them.
>
> Andrew
>
> _______________________________________________
> Evolution-list mailing list
> Evolution-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/evolution-list