Holehan’s UI Reviews

This is still work in progess

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  1. 1. Objective
    1. 1.1 The dialog layout
    2. 1.2 Problems with the dialog approach
    3. 1.3 Introducing the bar
    4. 1.4 Problems with the bar approach:
  2. 2. Discussion and Suggestions
    1. 2.1 Which options to show initially, which options to progressively disclose, which options to remove
    2. 2.2 Showing/hiding the search bar
    3. 2.3 Way of disclosing further search options
    4. 2.4 Switching from find to find&replace and back
    5. 2.5 Highlight All

1. Objective

Design a find bar that replaces the find dialog known from Kate versions pre KDE4.

1.1 The dialog layout

The current find and find&replace dialogs are pictured below:

1.2 Problems with the dialog approach

  1. obscures content
  2. is in the way, breaks work flow
  3. the dialog closes with the first hit, a search for next item can only be started from a new dialog window, a menu entry or via a shortcut.
  4. several pop up windows during a task to replace search hits.

1.3 Introducing the bar

All these problems are addressed by a find bar similar to the one below:

1.4 Problems with the bar approach:

The bar approach poses new problems, mainly related to its limited space:

2. Discussion and Suggestions

Main issues so far that have to be thouroughly solved:

  1. space. it is limited horizontally to the width of the window or worst, when a sidebar is expanded, to the width of the text display. Vertically it is limited to one line for the search commands.

2.1 Which options to show initially, which options to progressively disclose, which options to remove

2.2 Showing/hiding the search bar

The search bar can be shown by issuing a keyboard shortcut (CTRL+f) or by selecting the “Edit”→”Find…” menu entry.

2.3 Way of disclosing further search options

2.4 Switching from find to find&replace and back

2.5 Highlight All

Firefox uses a toggle button to switch between highlighting all hits and highlighting only the current hit. A toggle button has the advantage that it can be used in combination with an icon that gives a hint what the highlighting looks like. In Firefox’s case it uses a white text icon that turns yellow when the button is toggled - the same yellow that is used as a highlighting color. For KDE this means that having a toggle buttons makes sense only if a similar behaviour is possible. If not, a checkbox should be used.