Re: Tag search for all / any tags

["Dotan Cohen" <dotancohen gmail com>]

Alright, I've talked to my wife and my neighbors about what they
expect from clicking multiple tabs, and almost everyone expects each
click to reduce the amount of pictures in the list. So, that means AND
behaviour. However, nobody (even those who thought that clicking tags
should increase the amount of photos, ie OR behaviour) wants to use
the keyboard for advanced searches.

I've discovered that there are two scenarios that people would use
tags to navigate their photo collection:

1) Searching for a particular photo. In this scenario, the user has a
particular photo in mind, and wants to find it. Each click should
reduce the number of photos displayed, narrowing down the search to
just a few photos so that the desired photo can be found easily. In
this scenario, only the AND operator is necessary.

2) Searching for ideas. In this scenario, the user knows what he wants
in general, but has no particular photo in mind. Examples of this are
websites, invitations, email, etc. In this scenario, the first tag
should narrow down the search, and the rest would either broaden or
narrow down the search. So, both OR and AND operators are necessary.

I propose a 'switch' that has two modes: BROADEN and NARROW. The
button should be clearly visible near the tags, and both words should
be displayed at all times. Also, it should be clear in what mode the
switch is. When the switch is in BROADEN mode, a click on a tag will
expand the number of photos shown, and in NARROW mode, a click will
reduce the number of photos shown. These terms are much easier for
mortals to comprehend than OR and AND. Also, the user knows exactly
what behaviour to expect while operating it. The only downside is that
there is no what to perform a NOT operation. However, that could be
reserved for the advanced search dialog.

What does the list think about the BROADEN / NARROW button?

Dotan Cohen