Re: [Usability] Open Files - Search

[Calum Benson <Calum Benson Sun COM>]

On Wed, 2007-05-09 at 18:27 +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:

> Adding modality doesn't make things simpler. 

I agree (although it needn't make things harder either); I just
suggested it because our file dialog is too cluttered already to allow a
permanent, separate search box like OSX has.

> Also one has not to pay attention what the mode is, as it's always the 
> same. I know the location entry got in my way a few times when I didn't 
> expect it to be on.

Well, one concern I'd have with your approach would be how quickly the
results list could populate itself as you typed.  Most of the time I'm
not interested in the search results because I know where I'm going, so
unless the results update was so instantaneous as to not delay the
appearance of each letter I typed, I would find it annoying.  Having a
separate search 'mode' might turn out to be necessary for that reason
alone.

Being a minimalistic sort of guy, I guess I also prefer the simplicity
of the results list in OSX-- it doesn't have explicit headers in the
results area, it just shows you a list of filenames.  For me, that's
enough to pick the file I was looking for first time, although I
certainly understand why you've included the headers in your mockup.
(And also that I'm not really a typical user any more than anyone on
this list probably is...)

Cheeri,
Calum.

-- 
CALUM BENSON, Usability Engineer       Sun Microsystems Ireland
mailto:calum benson sun com            GNOME Desktop Group
http://ie.sun.com                      +353 1 819 9771

Any opinions are personal and not necessarily those of Sun Microsystems