[kde-guidelines] HIG for search needed (?)

[Philipp Stefan]

Am 24.03.2014 21:50, schrieb Andrew Lake:
> Oh sure Thomas, I should have thought of that. I'm always the one 
> saying preach with the pixels not the words! Sorry. :-)
>
> Bangarang:
> http://bangarangkde.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/app-korn.png?w=740&h=547
>
> A couple mockups I shared with the VDG (in the mockup toolkit) for a 
> file manager:
> http://wstaw.org/m/2014/03/24/fm.png
>
> and a music player:
> http://wstaw.org/m/2014/03/24/mp.png
>
> In these particular mockups, the search is exposed in the UI with a 
> simple search icon rather than a text field, but that less 
> important. The word "Search" could accompany the icon to make it a bit 
> more discoverable. Search could also be the first entry in the list if 
> it is more appropriate. But, the number of interaction steps would be 
> exactly the same:
> 1. Click to focus/activate
> 2. Type
> 3. Enter (only necessary if the interaction pattern is search-on-enter 
> vs search-as-you-type).
>
> In all these cases, category selection (including search) is on the 
> left and content corresponding to that selection is on the right. The 
> behavioral model is consistent whether you select a category or 
> search: Content on the right reflects actions taken on the left AND 
> selections on the left are mutually exclusive.
>
> I've also used this pattern in a few Android applications with good 
> results. Of course, while this is a design pattern I've found quite 
> useful in practice, there's always the possibility that you folks may 
> identify some downsides with this approach. I certainly welcome the 
> feedback. :-)
>
> Hope this helps,
> Andrew
>
> P.S.  In the case of Bangarang, *filtering* was exposed in the content 
> window where the content corresponding to any category selection on 
> the left, including search, could be filtered.
Hi Andrew,

I have to say that I like the idea, but I think it only works in 
applications which can present the same information in different ways 
i.e. a music player or a chat app. You said it yourself already.
I always thought that the file manager was the "norm" application, but 
now that I really think about it it seems that most applications don't 
behave this way at all.
So maybe we really should focus on the filter functionality first, 
because the only application that performs an actual search are the file 
manager and KRunner/Kickoff.

You want to integrate the search in the "button" on the left side as 
well. Have you read the e-mails between me and Heiko Tietze[1]? I 
noticed that if we use a standard text field so build the search field 
then the space is very restricted with the current size of the text 
field and the typeface. Does the VDG intent to make a dedicated search 
widget?

Cheers,

Phil

[1] http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-guidelines/2014-March/000760.html 
; http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-guidelines/2014-March/000761.html ; 
http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-guidelines/2014-March/000762.html