Re: [Rhythmbox-devel] Rhythmbox Breakdown #3

[William Jon McCann <mccann jhu edu>]

Hey James,

James "Doc" Livingston wrote:
> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 13:45 +0100, Martin Jeppesen wrote: 
> > * Like it have been suggested before, I too thing a drop down menu is
> > the way to go, rather than having 3 almost but not quite unlike radio
> > buttons =)
> >
> > A drop down menu scales, and it takes up much less UI space. It could look like:
> >
> > Show only: [                                                 ] in [ Albums ]
>
> I don't mind the current "button bar" too much, but a drop menu is
> probably much better. In either case, having it be at the right hand
> side and making the search entry take up the rest of the space is
> probably a good idea.

I really don't understand this.  Exactly why is a drop down menu better?

It is clearly not easier or faster.  Think about the number of clicks 
and the discoverability of the options or the time it takes to try one 
option and then switch to another.

We shouldn't consider "scalability" as a good reason because adding more 
items wouldn't necessarily be a good thing.  Perhaps with one exception. 
 I think it might be nice to incorporate the way iTunes also allows a 
track "type" selection in the search bar.

I still don't think it is right to make the buttons aligned to the 
right.  Think about what would happen every time you switch sources... 
the buttons and search bar would have to be resized.  This takes time is 
is ugly.  It would also be farther away from the start of the entry box 
and would take more time for the user to move between both.  What is the 
motivation for making it right aligned?  If it is to have a larger 
search box then I don't think that is very useful - how long is the 
typical search?  In most cases you probably don't even need to type in 
the full album title or artist to pull up a unique match.  For example, 
consider the following searches for this years Grammy nominees for album 
of the year:

Search: [Mariah         ]
Search: [Gorill         ]
Search: [Green D        ]
Search: [Gwen           ]
Search: [Kanye          ]

I don't think we need a larger text entry box.  And I still think iTunes 
got it mostly right by using buttons.

Jon