Re: [Usability] Gnome HIG suggestion: search box clear buttons

[Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>]

Hi Caleb,

On Fri, 2007-06-01 at 21:12 -0400, Caleb Marcus wrote:
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> It doesn't have to dynamically appear. I just felt that Thunderbird
> with its clear button in the search box felt more natural and easy to
> use than highlighting the text and deleting it, as with the deskbar
> applet, for example. However, a clear button could be placed next to
> the search box, it doesn't have to actually be in it. It's just that
> in my example, it's in the box.

Evolution has a similar control [1]. Rather than having a red 'close'
button appear, it has a greyed-out 'clear' icon, permanently to the
right of the text entry. When you type something into the text entry, it
becomes sensitive/colourful.

libsexy has a control too, SexyIconEntry [2].

I suppose another reason to have a clear button is to provide some
feedback that search terms have been entered and that a search is
currently active - I've lost count of the times that I've been looking
for an item in a list, only to realise that I'd entered some search
terms earlier and had to go and clear them to look again. Of course, a
tiny little clear button is unlikely to help much with this...

Thanks,

Phil

[1] - http://philbull.googlepages.com/EvolutionSearchBar.png
[2] - http://www.chipx86.com/wiki/Libsexy#SexyIconEntry

-- 
Phil Bull
http://www.launchpad.net/people/philbull