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This brainstorm idea is in response to this blog post.
http://ppenz.blogspot.com/2010/07/searc ... ments.html

Please leave feedback and tell me what you think!


Here is the mockup for search without the filter button(far right) pushed. Its very similar to the original but it gets rid of the extra space by combining everything onto one line at first.


This second mockup shows after you push the filter button. All initial values are null to not affect the search, but you can click and change one or all of the values. If you need multiple levels of filters, there's also a button on the right to add another row.

I made a brainstorm idea a long time ago that has a different mockup for the same thing:
brainstorm.php#idea38890

I'll approve this idea, but it might be considered a duplicate of the other idea (it's a different mockup, but the goal and general idea is the same, which is kind of a gray area). I'll let another admin or mod decide, since I have an apparent conflict of interest

TheBlackCat wrote:I made a brainstorm idea a long time ago that has a different mockup for the same thing:
brainstorm.php#idea38890

I'll approve this idea, but it might be considered a duplicate of the other idea (it's a different mockup, but the goal and general idea is the same, which is kind of a gray area). I'll let another admin or mod decide, since I have an apparent conflict of interest

This is def not a dup Some differences btwn ur idea and the mockups I posted based off of Peters blog.

1. I HATE text boxes at the bottom of the screen. it creates a ton of unnecessary mouse movements back and forth and just seems unnatural to have the results not displayed directly below the search. and Peter's idea of having the search replace the breadcrumb saves a ton of space.
2. The navigation menu that you use, I liked at first, but then realized it will take a ton of mouse clicks and movements to select multiple options. Having all the categories laid out in this way is much more visible and easier to choose from.
3. Its a lot less cluttered and offers the ability to have multiple layers of filters.

Things Id still think about fixing.

I think the date filter would be better by having an advanced mode where you could select a date on the calendar like you proposed, and also to select a range between two dates. but not sure how to implement that without taking up a ton of room.

I wasnt able to put a "Save Search" dialog anywhere, but that could go into the File menu, or right click or somewhere else. Im not really sure where

Supreme1012 wrote:
1. I HATE text boxes at the bottom of the screen. it creates a ton of unnecessary mouse movements back and forth and just seems unnatural to have the results not displayed directly below the search. and Peter's idea of having the search replace the breadcrumb saves a ton of space.

That is not really critical to either version. Both yours and mine would work fine both at the top and bottom of the screen.

Supreme1012 wrote:
2. The navigation menu that you use, I liked at first, but then realized it will take a ton of mouse clicks and movements to select multiple options. Having all the categories laid out in this way is much more visible and easier to choose from.

As I explained in the comments, I propose a few layouts. The first one would require one additional mouse click, but the other ones would not.

Supreme1012 wrote:
3. Its a lot less cluttered and offers the ability to have multiple layers of filters.

I would say yours is considerably more cluttered, since you have all the filters there all the time even if you only want one of them. This makes it much harder to tell at a glance which filters are active and which are not. Since for mine, the filters appear in the filter bar it is clear which ones are being used.

Further, mine allows for multiple layers of filters as well, since when filters are applied they are just added to the filter bar. They can also be very easily removed independently of each other, since each one has its own "x" button to delete it. It is not as easy to remove your filters. In fact it is not clear at all how you would, for instance, remove the ratings filter at all.

There is also the issue that your idea does not support filtering within a particular folder at all. You can search the sub-folders of the current folder, or you can search everywhere, but you cannot just filter.

Supreme1012 wrote:
I think the date filter would be better by having an advanced mode where you could select a date on the calendar like you proposed, and also to select a range between two dates. but not sure how to implement that without taking up a ton of room.

Your proposal wouldn't really take any less room, you would still need a popup in order to set the date.

TheBlackCat wrote:That is not really critical to either version. Both yours and mine would work fine both at the top and bottom of the screen.

Your mockups only show it at the bottom of the screen though. And I view that as your biggest design flaw. My mockup would not work on the bottom of the screen.

TheBlackCat wrote:As I explained in the comments, I propose a few layouts. The first one would require one additional mouse click, but the other ones would not.

The time it takes to move through a navigation menu, and then click, is also a factor. And you would have to do this each subsequent time, since as soon as you click something the nav menu would hide and you would have to click it again to move back to where you just were (I hate navigation menus for almost anything).

TheBlackCat wrote:I would say yours is considerably more cluttered

Cluttered is having too much stuff crammed into too small of a space. having everything crammed into that navigation menu or as little icons with arrows to show the ones that dont fit, is cluttered.

TheBlackCat wrote:In fact it is not clear at all how you would, for instance, remove the ratings filter at all.

The same way as Digikam, which is surprisingly for their design, pretty easy to do and fairly intuitive. And if you've never used it in Digikam, you click to add stars and then click it again if you want to remove or change the stars.

TheBlackCat wrote:There is also the issue that your idea does not support filtering within a particular folder at all. You can search the sub-folders of the current folder, or you can search everywhere, but you cannot just filter.

? How would it not filter? You type text and it would filter the folder to match that text. The "Show Hidden Files" and "Include Sub-folders" would be options in the menu as well.

TheBlackCat wrote:Your proposal wouldn't really take any less room, you would still need a popup in order to set the date.

As in its using the current system of "Today, Yesterday, past week, month, etc" instead of a date range such as "2010-07-20 to 2010-07-24" which as you can see by the text, takes up more room to write.

I see your whole design as completely different, but we need to just agree to disagree as Im not going to spend forever arguing the merits of every little thing. You're mockup would work, and it would be functional, I just see it as cluttered and more of a Windows 2000 or KDE3 design and not as modern or user friendly. I dont wish to offend, I just see things differently.

I won't argue the details, but this is important:

Supreme1012 wrote:
The time it takes to move through a navigation menu, and then click, is also a factor. And you would have to do this each subsequent time, since as soon as you click something the nav menu would hide and you would have to click it again to move back to where you just were (I hate navigation menus for almost anything).

As I explained, only the first version has a menu. The other two versions do not use menus at all, so this complaint is not relevant for them. I provided alternatives specifically because I knew there were problems with menus.

Well:
1. I really don't like the way in which multiple levels search takes so much space of toolbars. Searcg should be implemented as information panel is. Area where user can specifie serches without loss of area.
2. I don't like toolbuttons (because you need to unfold menus, click and cklisk which takes time and is not clear and easy to use for user) generaly is not elegant if you saw Arron keynote. Developer of Kexi have recently shown nice button layout (one by one - touching each other) Maybe it will work out here.
3. I will erase "Find:". Previous solution ( with "Search" in search box was ok.

tvpaker wrote:Search should be implemented as information panel is

Thats definitely probably one of the only good alternatives, without having to use a popup to define advanced settings for search. it would just use up a lot of space

tvpaker wrote:I will erase "Find:". Previous solution ( with "Search" in search box was ok.

I completely agree. i think peter just copy and pasted the filter bar into the original mockup, and i just kept it b/c its not a huge issue. but removing the find text would save some space

The searchbox should be possible get moved different parts of the dolphin window. Top or bottom. And the filter options should follow it, stay always under the input box.

The BlackCats idea is more just filtering buttons, while this is more like the idea in blogpost, but just taking much less space. And I like this more.

For the date question. it really should be the calender view. It should pop-up (unless this would be maded to the sidepanel, from what I have two mockups).

When the calender pop-ups when pressing (date). User could drag the selection or click the date/weekday/week/month/year infos to get them.

That gives very powerfull and intuitive way to select example "week 23" or "mondays from this month" or "this month" or even the "from date 15 to date 23".

That is something what can not do with text or similar.