Scoping and basic filters are CRITICALLY DIFFERENT.
Hi Rob,
Back to the topic at hand rather than all that "soft skills" stuff... :-D
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DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT CRITIQUE OF THE CURRENT IMPLEMENTATION
If you are changing this, or have a plan for it, then ignore my post. Go look at this awesome puppy video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNHVXSPEIpY
To get a current user perspective, read on.
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I do see the difference between the purpose of the two features. I understand that they will be incredibly useful. I see the purpose of each. But the issue I was raising is that the UI that is implemented doesn't support that vision or make it apparent. I had doubts about whether I understood the concepts because as I see it the UI doesn't point to that at all.
Scoping would be great if you set one scope that was in place for the rest of the session. But it's not. New tabs don't get affected by the scope, and the "apply to all" is bugged in its behaviour (logged). If the logic of scoping is as you explained it then "apply to all" should be assumed, including for new tabs. The only functional difference betwen scoping and search as it stands now is that search allows keywords and tags vs. scoping only allows tags, and you have to retype the search for each new tab rather than having to just enable the scope for each new tab. That's it.
If we truly want to set a scope as you mention it, then it needs to apply to all tabs (possibly with an option to turn of the scope for a tab rather than making the user manually apply it to each new tab). It needs to be an overarching set-and-forget feature, which it currently isn't.
I also understand the attempt at using the icon overlays, but using the green checkmark to mean that a filter is active (with nothing to indicate that a filter is defined but inactive), and at the same time using the green checkmark to mean that a scope is defined but not necessarily active, and using the tag overlay on the search icon to indicate that a scope is active (with nothing on the scope icon to indicate such) is just plain confusing.
To summarize, as it stands there are two features that are functionally identical with a few tweaks. It's all well and good to say that one is supposed to be used for X and one is supposed to be used for Y, but they are essentially the same right now. A few tweaks could make them much more obviously to be used how you intend.
To make the features act as you laid out above, I'd suggest the following changes:
- make scoping automatically apply to new tabs (perhaps adding a "remove scope from this tab" rather than "add scope to all tabs" button).
- make it more clear when a filter and a scope are applied, in a consistent manner for both. Make the green checkmark indicate that one is enabled. Perhaps the pencil or a red check to indicate
that one is defined but not active. Personally I'd add a "reminder" that scoping is active in the search dialog, not on the search icon itself.
- Don't grey out menu items when they are active. A search box with nothing in it, but that is waiting for input, is active and shouldn't be greyed out. A tag selection box with nothing in it is still active if you can click it. Greyed out things aren't supposed to do anything when you click on them, these do.
- remove the duplicate and functionally-incomplete scope dialog from the filter dialog. Completely separate the two functionally. Again, I see why it might have been thought a good idea to put it there, but it's just confusing, especially when it looks almost the same as the scope dialog but functions differently (which is a bit weird in itself).
- some indicator on the tab header that a search is in place might be nice, but it also might be cluttered. Not sure on that one yet.
There. That's my thoughts on making the features both independent and more obviously useful for what they were intended. A few minor tweaks (especially the apply to all tabs bit) wold make these much more useful, and much more obvious about their intent.
I understand that you read this. There is no need to respond or correct or anything. If you find it useful, use it. If you don't, just smile and nod at the annoying user and file it in the circular file. At least I got it off my chest.
And I look forward to using auto-assigning tags when it doesn't crash my realm (logged). :-D
