Currently, there are two search result lists: one is a summary list that immediately appears below the corner search field, and the other is a more detailed list that appears once a user hits “return” after their search text. I am assuming the reason for this is to give a quick, simple answer for the user in a hurry who expects to find their quarry with little fuss, and the larger window is a more detailed result set for a more involved search. Instead of presenting nearly the same result list in two different places with two different interfaces, I would prefer to redesign the result list. This redesign has three goals: to satisfy both the quick and dirty and more rigorous search situations described above, to provide context for the search result, and to more strongly adhere to the OS X interface standards to provide familiarity to the user.

The best interface for users to find what they are looking for is a good combination of both text search and hierarchical file management. We already see this in iTunes and Mail, where as-you-type searching with contextual filter buttons have been added to an already solid file hierarchy. Both Mail and iTunes have an advantage with regards to search because the resulting files are all the same type (email or music files, respectively).

In the case of system-wide search for Spotlight, context is key. The initial window of Spotlight provides search results based on word matching, and the context is supplied by the continuously adjusting categories as more search results stream in. This jerky behavior is frustrating because the user can't expect a particular result to remain in place. Additionally, no context beyond "kind" is provided in this interface. To get context, the user must hit ?return? and interpret a new interface. This "extended" search results interface provides context initially only by showing the date and time the file was created (incidentally, I believe that if only one date is provided, the date modified is more useful then the date created). To get more context, the user must either choose a sorting mechanism from the right side choices or click the "i" information icon. The information icon (notably a non-standard OS X UI element), behaves like a disclosure triangle and provides the data usually associated with the "get info" command: the dates the file was created, modified, and last opened, and file size, location path, and a preview. The preview is sometimes useful (graphics, pdfs) but oftentimes, it just shows a large icon for that filetype (mail messages, any kind of text file other then pdf). In short, the supporting information that is useful to put a filename match in context is dependent on the user going the extra step to choose a sorting filter and/or uncollapsing the info icon, and even this information is often non-essential (file size? filetype icon?) to the user. In addition, of the fourteen categories Spotlight can search, only about three categories (if they contain 5 or more results) and one image preview can fit vertically on a monitor at one time at 1024x768 screen resolution, meaning that the user must scroll to see other category results.