[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] unfocus search entries in Views and the Journal

[Gary Martin]

Hi Simon,

On 20 Aug 2012, at 12:56, Simon Schampijer <simon at schampijer.de> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have been thinking a bit about how we can enhance the interaction with the search entries in the Shell so they will work well in touch as well [1].
> 
> When you have a touchscreen device focusing an entry will automatically bring up the onscreen keyboard (OSK). We are currently doing this in the Home View/Neighborhood View and in the Journal. For keyboard devices this makes absolute sense, having first to move the pointer towards the entry, click on it before you can type in the search is a too long interaction. With a touch interface however it is ok to touch the search field to bring up the OSK in most of the cases. Otherwise the OSK might cover parts of the screen without need.
> 
> I would suggest the following new behavior:
> 
> - the entry is unfocused by default, the canvas is focused

+1

> - the entry contains a hint (e.g. "Search in your Journal..."), adding a placeholder text is available in GTK+3.2 [2]

Nice find. The place holder text would need to vary from place to place e.g. "Search journal", "Search neighbourhood", "Search group" [1], "Search favourite activities", "Search all activities".

> - when the user starts typing the entry is focused automatically (listening on the canvas and switching focus)

+1

> I think this will give a good behavior for both worlds.

Yes, agreed. The search placeholder text also provides additional context indicating which view you might be in. At one point we discussed the possibility of adding each zoom view icon to each view's toolbar to improve context, but that design wasn't complete, the search placeholder text would be a step in that direction.

Regards,
--Gary

[1] The Group view still doesn't have a minimal toolbar or search facilities ;)

> I have attached as well a GTK+ 3 example. Let me know what you think.
> 
> Regards,
>   Simon
> 
> [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Touch/Development#Reveal_on_text_input_focus.2C_auto_.2A.2Adismiss.2A.2A_on_loss_of_focus
> [2] http://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/3.4/GtkEntry.html#gtk-entry-set-placeholder-text
> 
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