Photo Mechanic Plus > Feature Requests

For discussion - graphical advanced search

(1/2) > >>

carlseibert:
Does anybody else find it interesting that there is not a mob with pitchforks and torches demanding a graphical advanced search tool? Nary a post....

As for me, personally, I don't really care. The discovery that I could just type my search in the box however I want and click enter just made my day. I don't need no stinkin' repeater dialog.

But I can't help thinking that such a thing might be a good thing in terms of making PM+ more accessible to new users.

Assuming that Kirk agrees that (someday) this might be valuable, there is the question of what it should look like. Usually, they're repeaters. But maybe there's a better way.

One thing that I often see that does seem to work pretty well is pulldowns (or radio buttons) for choosing operators, you have [whatever] - pulldown - [next thing]. The pulldowns translate Booleans into ordinary language. Teaching new users the concepts of AND and OR has always been a challenge/nightmare.  On the other hand, some flowery language in an application that leaves me scratching my head wondering, "Does that mean this or that?" makes me crazy.

If such a dialog ever comes to be constructed, my only clever suggestion would be that it show the actual query being constructed, like the way the rename dialog does. Thus, the next time or the time after, the user could just type his or her query in the search box and be done with it.

Am I just being silly here? Ideas?

Luiz Muzzi:
Hi,
I am an amateur photographer and a newbie in terms of catalogue. It really is a bit difficult for me to understand the concepts of a catalogue, the "and" and the "or" features, among other things.
So I think that any help for us newbies is more than welcome.
Thanks a lot for bringing up the discussion.
Regards,
- Luiz Muzzi

Kirk Baker:

--- Quote from: carlseibert on May 01, 2019, 03:12:38 PM ---Does anybody else find it interesting that there is not a mob with pitchforks and torches demanding a graphical advanced search tool? Nary a post....

As for me, personally, I don't really care. The discovery that I could just type my search in the box however I want and click enter just made my day. I don't need no stinkin' repeater dialog.

But I can't help thinking that such a thing might be a good thing in terms of making PM+ more accessible to new users.

Assuming that Kirk agrees that (someday) this might be valuable, there is the question of what it should look like. Usually, they're repeaters. But maybe there's a better way.

One thing that I often see that does seem to work pretty well is pulldowns (or radio buttons) for choosing operators, you have [whatever] - pulldown - [next thing]. The pulldowns translate Booleans into ordinary language. Teaching new users the concepts of AND and OR has always been a challenge/nightmare.  On the other hand, some flowery language in an application that leaves me scratching my head wondering, "Does that mean this or that?" makes me crazy.

If such a dialog ever comes to be constructed, my only clever suggestion would be that it show the actual query being constructed, like the way the rename dialog does. Thus, the next time or the time after, the user could just type his or her query in the search box and be done with it.

Am I just being silly here? Ideas?

--- End quote ---

Isn't the Filter system basically what you've described, Carl?  Each stage of the Filter is an AND with the other filter stages.  Selecting multiple items in a filter stage is an OR among those items.

-Kirk

syncrasy:
Is this what we're talking about? (Media Pro's Find dialog):

syncrasy:
Graphical menu-driven dialogs, used appropriately, can benefit both new users and expert users. It's not about dumbing down anything. It's all about usability. In my experience, a graphical menu-driven dialog is a superior UI solution for a Boolean search/find tool for many reasons (e.g., better integration of search field + operator + value, more natural cognitive mapping, lighter cognitive load, more efficient use of screen real estate, etc.).

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page