583726 - Provide better visual feedback when Quickfilter is applied

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Search, enhancement)

Description

[Charles]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.8) Gecko/20100722 Firefox/3.6.8
Build Identifier: 3.1.1

Currently the visual feedback whenever a quick filter is being applied to a folder in the message list pane, while better than in 3.0 and earlier, is still minimal.

I'd like to see this enhanced in the following manner:

1. When there are no messages that fit the criteria, in addition to the
   slanted 'pink' (they look pink to me) lines, have an actual text
   message displayed directly in the center of the message list pane
   that says something like:

 "0 of the 5,348 messages in this folder match your current filter criteria."

   Adding 2 big 'Clear Filters' and 'Perform Global Search' buttons in
   the message list pane would also go a long way to totally eliminating
   confusion about further options (ie, using ESC to clear the filter,
   or if bug 570815 is implemented, hitting CTRL-ENTER to perform a
   global search.

2. I's also like to see an (optional?) highly contrasted 'filter
   results line' always displayed at the very top of/inside the
   message list pane, saying something like:

 "25 of the 5,348 messages in this folder match your current filter criteria."

   whenever there is at least one result.

This way, there is never any question about whether or not a filter is being applied, what the results are, and what your options are when there are no results.

Screenshot mock-ups to follow

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1

[Charles]

Attachment: Screenshot 1: mock-up of what the enhanced 'No Results' visual cues could look like

Obviously it is ugly and would need to be styled - this is just a wuick-n-dirty to show what I mean...

Comment 2

[Charles]

Attachment: Screenshot 2: mock-up of what the enhanced 'Results' visual cues could look like

Again, this is not styled at all, just a quick-n-dirty representation...

Comment 3

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 462059 [details]
Screenshot 1: mock-up of what the enhanced 'No Results' visual cues could look like

Quick Feedback:

This boils down to a question of design style:
- do we want more web-ish elements in our UI? Personally, I don't. I'm happy with current indicators in case of "no results", which are subtle but blend in well with the application look and feel, avoiding fancyness while being informative
- maybe if it could be much more subtle, having the information and the extra buttons might be something useful to try out. iow, i think high-contrast does not look professionell and you get tired of seeing it after a while as it yells at you

Comment 4

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Comment on attachment 462060 [details]
Screenshot 2: mock-up of what the enhanced 'Results' visual cues could look like

Quick feedback:

- IMO: NO to this one (extra info bar on top of message list informing about filter results), as nice and informative as it may look, because:
- we already have bug 570815 because filter bar plus secondary filter criteria bar take up too much space. in this screenshot 2, you are adding a 3rd info bar which will take even more vertical space. I'm actually suprised you propose that...
- I was wondering, though, if we should possibly keep the little label showing "20 messages" or "No results" next to the simple quick filter widget of bug 570815? Alternatively, use something non-space-eating like a small tooltip in upper-right corner of message list? Any other alternatives? on the horizontal criteria bar?
- We should definitely repair the status bar information about filter matches (bug 345366)

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Item #1 of comment 0 is currently satisfied