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[Bwinton-a <691380@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(In reply to Charles from comment #131)
> (In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #130)
> > (In reply to Charles from comment #129)
> >> (In reply to Blake Winton (:bwinton - Thunderbird UX) from comment #128)
> >>> The main thing I dislike is that it feels _way_ too cluttered.
> 
> >> As compared to the Quickfilter Toolbar?
> >> Remember, this is designed to *replace* the entire QF toolbar.
> > No, as compared with something I would want to add to Thunderbird.  ;)
> But...
> a) we are talking about bringing something back that was *removed* that a
> *lot* of people liked and want to see brought back, and

Perhaps the problem is that I'm not talking about bringing back
anything…

> > > > http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2301433/Screenshots/SearchBar/GlobalSearch.png shows
> > > > some extra icons beside the global search.
> > > I only see the clear button, the button to switch back to Filter mode, and
> > > the Prefs button - what other buttons are you talking about?
> > The ones to the left of the words "Messages mentioning: Mike".
> Oh... the 'Messages mentioning: Mike' pop-out is actually covering up the
> rest - look and you'll see that those are the filter options, and the ones
> that are hidden are the attachment icon, and then the 'Sender, Recipients,
> Subject and Body options.

But if I'm showing the global "Messages mentioning: Mike", how are those
filter options showing?

> > So, I've got a picture of all the bars up at
> > http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2301433/Screenshots/SearchBar/GlobalSearch.png
> > You'll notice that the add-on has four buttons in the text box, as opposed
> > to one icon for each of the QFB and GlodaBar.
> 
> Correct, but...
> 
> That picture shows that you are in Global Search mode, not Filter mode. This
> extension is *primarily* meant to be used for filtering, not Global
> Searching, that part was added later. Switch to Filter mode (click the mode
> toggle button, which is the Magnifying glass icon) and experiment with that
> for a while...

Right, then there are "only" three buttons, instead of the one for QFB
and Gloda…

Also, the fact that there are two different modes is one of the problems
I have with it.

> > For the add-on's popup, there's no indication of what the various icons are,
> > or which keys I would use to activate them.
> If you mouse-over them, you get tooltip descriptions of what they do.

And if I'm blind?  Even if I'm sighted, mousing-over and waiting for
several tooltips before I finally find the icon I want is a bad UX by
any measure.

> > For the add-on, to clear the options, Esc+Esc is a _horrible_ key
> > combination.
> So do like I do and just click the little x icon.

That there is an alternative doesn't make Esc+Esc a good UX.

> > (I also have no idea what "Clear Options" actually does…)
> It clears the searchbox text and any of the options (show Unread only, show
> Starred only, Show only messages with Attachments, etc)...

So, I mention all of these things not so that you can explain them,
because I'm sure there are answers to any of them, but to demonstrate
that there are a large number of things that are confusing to people who
have never used the add-on before.

> > I agree there is more stuff displayed at the start in the QFB, but it's
> > better organized, and so easier to understand, and I don't think the add-on
> > actually does any less so it's not actually more minimal.
> It is vastly more minimal, because it isn't a toolbar, it is a little
> searchbox that you can put wherever you want. I put all of my icons and the
> Unified Search box on the Menu bar.

Not being a toolbar doesn't make it more minimal.  Neither does making
it smaller.  (For that matter, neither does removing text labels from
iconic buttons.)  Removing functionality from it (like my suggestion to
remove the two modes) would make it more minimal, but you don't seem to
be suggesting that.

Also, you know we've got plans to hide the menu bar by default, right?
So putting things there isn't a great long-term idea…

> > I think we can have something that offers both filtering and global search
> > without making people specify which one they want, by extending the
> > behaviour of the QFB when you type in something like "fjdsfjslfnsdkfn" to
> > also cover cases where there are matches, and that seems like a better way
> > to go to me…
> The whole point of this addon is to eliminate the need for a huge toolbar,
> and give us back the little filter searchbox that can be placed wherever we
> want like TB 3.0- had.

That's fine, but that's not the point of this bug.  (Or maybe it is, but
that's not necessarily the direction that will get a ui-r+ from me…)
The point of this bug (as I see it) is to move forward with a better UI,
not to bring back any specific UI from the past.

Thanks,
Blake.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/691380

Title:
  Quick Search  Filter should be moveable

Status in Mozilla Thunderbird Mail and News:
  Confirmed
Status in “thunderbird” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “thunderbird” source package in Lucid:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: thunderbird

  Today I updated lucid 3.0.4 TB to 3.1.7 from security.  I never liked
  the new "smart" search feature but relied mostly on filtering on To,
  CC and recipient.  I had put the search field for that on the menu bar
  so no further screen real estate was used on my netbook.  3.1.7 now
  introduces a UI regression in that that search field is used solely
  for the dumb "smart" search that opens a tab to waste even more screen
  space.  To use the search that I care about I have to use the quick
  search bar, more lost screen space.  And when I actually use it it
  opens another bar to filter and by then I can't even see my messages
  any longer.

  Seriously, netbooks are here to stay.  What were the UI devs thinking
  looking at their 28" TFT display all day?

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