GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 626477
Search bar is ugly
Last modified: 2021-05-19 12:14:34 UTC
Created attachment 167450 [details] Search bar mockup Evolution's search bar (the one between the toolbar and the actual content, like mail messages) has multiple problems, mosly related to poor appearance. (1) On wide screens, where in the mail view the list of messages and the individual message are horizontally next to each other, the search bar is way too wide. This could be fixed by having the search bar only above (or below) the list of messages. That makes sense as well, since that's where the search results will show up. (2) The search bar contains ugly spacing: too much or too little spacing in the wrong places. (3) The combo boxes in the search bar look ugly. A much calmer alternative and easier in terms of spacing is using a regular button with no relief and a downward arrow icon. See e.g. the header of the side bar of nautilus for an example. (4) The discoverability of the search target menu is poor. The find icon on the left edge of the entry gives no indication that it holds a menu. If possible, a small downward arrow could be overlaid above the icon, but that might not necessarily look good, especially across icons of different themes. Attaching a mockup of the mail view search bar that demonstrates a better appearance with respect to points (2) and (3).
(In reply to comment #0) > Created an attachment (id=167450) [details] > Search bar mockup > > the search bar is way too wide. That is highly subjective. Maybe you are right for English. You are most likely not right for languages where strings are longer. Compared to 2.28 finally the search bar is wide enough in 2.30 for me to not have strings cut. > (2) The search bar contains ugly spacing: too much or too little spacing in the > wrong places. Where exactly? > (3) The combo boxes in the search bar look ugly. Which ones? At least for "All messages" and "Current Folder" Evolution uses standard GTK+ dropdown menus and that will not change. > the header of the side bar of nautilus for an example. Screenshot welcome. > (4) The discoverability of the search target menu is poor. I agree and I like your idea.
(In reply to comment #1) > > the search bar is way too wide. > > That is highly subjective. Maybe you are right for English. You are most likely > not right for languages where strings are longer. Compared to 2.28 finally the > search bar is wide enough in 2.30 for me to not have strings cut. I admit it's probably very subjective. I'll attach a screenshot of how it looks on my 1920x1200 screen. The search entry is about 135 characters wide! It's so wide that I can't even see the clear icon and following combo box when typing in a word. There are ways around widgets being too wide in some languages. Labels could be removed if keyboard access was provided via the menu bar. If not actually using combo boxes (as in my mockup) the widget could be set to a fixed width and the text ellipsized. The menu and a tooltip would contain the full text. But, I know these solutions are not very good. > > (2) The search bar contains ugly spacing: too much or too little spacing in the > > wrong places. > > Where exactly? It looks like the horizontal spacing of the search bar is the following. [label] 4px [combo] 24px [label] 4px [entry] 24px [label] 4px [combo] I think 4px is too little and 24 px too much. I'm no HIG-expert, but I'd probably use 12px for all these horizontal spaces. I see no need for wider conceptual spaces. I'd also use a colon after the "in" label. > > (3) The combo boxes in the search bar look ugly. > > Which ones? At least for "All messages" and "Current Folder" Evolution uses > standard GTK+ dropdown menus and that will not change. Combo boxes in general. The ever-present relief of the combo box looks disturbing on a toolbar and would perhapse require more vertical padding. Compare with normal toolbar items that have no relief except upon hover. > > the header of the side bar of nautilus for an example. > > Screenshot welcome. I'll attach a screenshot. > > (4) The discoverability of the search target menu is poor. > > I agree and I like your idea. I'll attach a screenshot from Thunderbird. With a simple search icon and no overlap the small downward arrow works great. Maybe symbolic icons would be good here? See the usage guidelines [1] for an example of symbolic icons in entries. A monochrome gray search icon with with a small black arrow overlaid should look very clear. [1] http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Design/Whiteboards/SymbolicIcons
Created attachment 167542 [details] Current Evolution search bar
Created attachment 167543 [details] Combo box like widget in Nautlius side bar
Created attachment 167544 [details] Thunderbird search entry
Also see bug 661564
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