increasing the usability of search dialogs

[Kuba Ober]

> If moving windows turns out to be the be solution for a problem, I think it
> can be improved by gently moving it in an anmiation, where it accelerates
> and de-accelerates. Instead of that something suddenly jerks on the screen,
> the user understands what happens, and eventually sees the highlighted
> search term appearing as the window slides. It can be that the computer
> isn't percepted as something irrational and alienated, but that what it
> does make sense and is understandable.

I don't see how an animation would improve broken behaviour. I'd be, for 
example, pretty annoyed by an animation that would, in practical terms, block 
the application and who knows what else. Sliding windows around isn't exactly 
cheap, especially if you're on a remote X session (even if over a gigabit 
connection). Animating windows might be acceptable on platforms that are 
optimized for just that, say OS/X. That's about the only platform where it 
could be properly implemented (as in not making the performance suffer).

If a window needs to be moved, then just don't put it there in the first 
place. Which brings us back to the fact that a search bar / docked search 
widget is way nicer than a search dialog.

Cheers, Kuba