GNOME Search Tool Improvements
Calum Benson, 30th January 2002These mock-ups were prompted by Dennis
Cranston's recent redesign. Here are a few more suggestions that
would tidy up and simplify the interface, and make the design more compliant
with the GNOME UI Design
Guidelines.
Initial presentation of dialog
- No notebook tabs. Tabs are evil :o)
- Results section is not shown by default, until user clicks Find. This simplifies the initial presentation of the dialog.
- The dialog-like row of buttons along the bottom is removed. A better option to remove the "is it an application or a dialog" confusion might be to remove the menu bar, though, and place all its functions into buttons.
- All buttons are same size, most controls line up with something else, and all controls have access keys. (The Avanced Options and Results disclosure triangles should also have these, but I forgot them on this screenshot....)
- GNOME-preferred term is now "folder" rather than "directory".
After user has clicked Find
- The Results section opens automatically. During the search, Find would change to Stop; this screenshot assumes the search is complete.
- Results divided into three columns, showing type of file (this could be as simple as "file or directory"), file name, and location. Results can be ordered by any one of those columns.
- Could possibly add a "Save Results" button in the results section,
if we wanted to get rid of the menubar altogether
Advanced Options
- Much of the original visual clutter of 3D borders etc. removed
- Disabled rules are greyed-out
- Addition of "Remove All" button
- If user added one of the 'regular expression'-type rules, you would probably need to disable the "Find Files Named:" field at the top of the dialog, as it would be superceded.
- Could possibly add the "find command" text field in with the advanced options, if we wanted to get rid of the menubar altogether
- Should rules specified in Advanced options only be used when the Advanced
options section is visible? Probably.
