In lenses, it is not obvious what the filters do, if anything at all. It
might be understood as the search phrase being the filter and that the
results are the Filter results. From my testing, I don't think I've seen
any user clicking on that text in order to display the filters. In order
to make it easier for new-comers to explore and learn how things work, I
propose the following;
Filters should be displayed by default. That way, when the user first
explores the system, he or she will immediately know what the filters do
and that there are different filters for different lenses. This is
important knowledge.
The header should not only display "Filter results", but should also
display a smaller "show" or "hide" the same way that categories do when
you can show more results. This will make it more obvious what filters
are and how to show or hide them.
Some users prefer to browse applications by category. Those who do,
should see the categories by default, and those who don't should
understand how to hide them. It should not be necessary to keep
displaying the categories every time you open the applications lens.
Since the filters are displayed by default, if they are hidden, that
means the user has understood how to show or hide them. Therefore, the
visibility of the filters should be remembered forever on a per-lens
basis. Having to repeat the same task over and over for no obvious
reason, is very annoying. As long as the situation doesn't change, I
should not be required to perform actions.
Whether or not the selections in the filters pane should be remembered,
I don't know. Whereas the filters visibility affects your general
workflow, the actual filter selection is probably more temporary. If I
open the calculator once, I'm not sure that means Accessories is an
important enough category to require me to unselect it the next time I
want to run something. For these reasons, I think I'd probably prefer
that filter visibility is remembered forever, but the actual filter
state be forgotten when the dash is closed.
Thoughts?
