By dreftymac on

FilterAsYouType.

Please take a few minutes to learn this buzzword, especially if you care about Drupal usability. Why? Because it is probably the best way to solve a real problem that is affecting you. This problem is not going to go away unless you learn this (or teach other people if you already know).

I know you're in a hurry, and you probably came here for something else, so I am going to quickly prove my point with a "hands-on" example. Please stop what you are doing right now and follow these steps, seriously. It will just take a few seconds.

Hands-on: please do this now

  • Open up a new tab in your Firefox browser
  • Type in "about:config" (exclude the quotes here and below)
  • Navigate to the "Filter" textbox
  • Type in "browser.bookmarks" and press "Enter"
  • Type in "security.enable" and press "Enter"

Congrats: You have just used the GUI feature called "FilterAsYouType".

Why this matters: Imagine all the time you would have wasted if you wanted to find these settings in some kind of hierarchical system of menus or hyperlinks. Imagine all the irrelevant stuff you would have to wade through if you were only interested in these tiny few items. Now imagine all the time you *are* wasting becasue Drupal and so many other large-scale applications lack this very simple feature. FilterAsYouType.

What to do about it: Learn that *every* GUI in the world that has more than a few options should have some kind of FilterAsYouType interface like the one you just used. This includes Drupal. Stop being satisfied with huge long lists of hierarchy and pages long lists of HTML checkboxes that you have to search through and click "one at a time".

Real world example: If you have used both Windows XP and Windows Vista, you will notice that under Start:Programs in XP, there is no FilterAsYouType. In Vista, there is. Say what you want about the OS, but you have to admit. FilterAsYouType plus Hierarchy Menu (Vista) is *much* better than just Hierarchy Menu alone. (XP)

Long lists of options in a hierarchy are suck.
Long pages of checkboxes that you have to click "one at a time" are *so* full of suck.
Large user interfaces that lack FilterAsYouType suck.

EVERY user interface that involves a deep hierarchy of independent options or checkboxes should have FilterAsYouType (or something equivalent).

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x, Drupal 6.x

Comments

darumaki’s picture

darumaki commented

Let me guess, you're one of those developy types who love to type and know more then they need to. The end user aka majority of users prefer to point and click. Say it with me "Point & Click" welcome to the modern age.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
contemplating the meaning of existance, what else would I be doing

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

Imagine all the time I wasted reading (and replying) to that post. And I have absolutely no idea what it means or why it's really important.

And if it was really important, I'd probably have heard of it by now.

~silverwing - and I care about Drupal, too.
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MisguidedThoughts

dreftymac’s picture

dreftymac commented

Nice to see this idea was picked up and implemented by the coffee module

https://www.drupal.org/project/coffee