30997 - [search ui] 'all categories' search category (in panel) causes confusing UI

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: Search, defect)

Description

[german]

This bug is about making the search sidebar panel easier to understand: We have
found in usability testing that that including an 'all categories' option at the
top of the list for search categories confuses users, dilluting the relationship
between search engines selected and categories (which are groups of search
engines that can be used in a search).
Based on the preliminary observation I believe we can make the serach panel
easier to understand if we remove the 'all categories' option and instead let
'Internet' be the default categories when the panel is used for the first time.

Comment 1

[german]

proposed as beta 1 candidate, based on the fact that we should err on the side
of making this new feature as accessible as possible, and ease adoption by users.

Comment 2

[leger]

Putting on PDT- radar for beta1.

Comment 3

[Robert John Churchill]

(Please remember to cc me on bugs regarding search features.)

If you remove the "All Categories" option, you have two problems:

o  it makes it impossible for Mac people to use the search sidebar panel with any 
of the other Sherlock files that they might have installed.
o  if Windows/Linux users add new Sherlock files, they won't be able to use them 
either (as, by default, they'd only appear in this category.)

I believe that this bug should be marked WONTFIX.

Comment 4

[german]

Robert raises a valid point, so how about appending 'All categories' to the 
bottom of the list seperated by a divider, to show that this is not directly a 
peer level selection to other categories.

Comment 5

[Robert John Churchill]

German, that's a fine idea;  currently however, we can't do that... all static 
XUL content appears before generated RDF data.  [Waterson has a bug regarding 
this, but we don't have an easy fix.]

I think this becomes less of an issue if the "Internet" (or whatever its called) 
category is by default chosen the very first time Mozilla is run, and we persist 
whatever category the user chooses.

Comment 6

[german]

Ok I understand there is no easy way to put the combined cat on the bottom now 
but at least seperating them out with a line should surely be possible in the 
interim right? Right now we do not even show the internet category but that's a 
seperate bug (just filed as bug 31208)

Comment 7

[Robert John Churchill]

> at least seperating them out with a line should surely be possible in the 
interim right?

Feel free to play with the XUL... you should be able to get it to be the *first* 
item, with a separator afterwards, and then all of the other categories.

Again: I think this is a small issue if the "Internet" (or whatever its called) 
category is (once its working again) by default chosen the very first and 
persisted.

Since this bug is marked PDT-  (and I'm on vacation in Maui)  I won't be focusing 
on it much.  :^)

Comment 8

[german]

Maui - what the $%^%&* (I envy :-(
Go back to the beach - have yourself a nice cold Piña Colada and forget I filed 
this bug...
----
based on the information above on feasibility and drawbacks I would like to 
withdraw the beta one keyword from this one. We'll leave it open but revisit 
after beta 1.

Comment 9

[don]

Move to M21 target milestone.

Comment 10

[Marcia Knous [:marcia]]

Netscape Nav triage team: this is not a Netscape beta stopper.

Comment 11

[Paul Chen]

Marking nsbeta1- bugs as future to get off the radar.

Comment 12

[Ben Goodger (use ben at mozilla dot org for email)]

I believe this is a little more important than Future, & worth investigating 
with a meeting or something before Mozilla 1.1

Comment 13

[Arun Prasannan (polar)]

This bug is being marked EXPIRED as it has seen no activity in a very long time.

If you think that the issue reported might still be relevant, please test with a recent release of SeaMonkey and if the problem persists feel free to re-open the report. Thank you.

http://www.seamonkey-project.org/

Comment 14

[Mark Banner (:standard8)]

Bulk reopening incorrectly expired bugs - no activity does not constitute no bug - these need proper checking.

Comment 15

[Philip Chee]

"All Categories" is now "All Engines" and "Internet" is now "Web".