A solution to the these issues is to borrow from the improvements made to the Finder in Panther, namely using a source column to show every category Spotlight searches. The sources here are all fourteen types of media that Spotlight searches, organized into logical clusters and topped by an “All” choice. Each source that contains results will show the number of results it contains alongside the source name. The benefit is similar to that of an RSS reader: the user is presented with a non-moving, consistent list of channels to choose from. This list also serves to impress upon the user all the different media that Spotlight can search, extending it’s usefulness as a service. Assuming that three times out of four a user will know the media type they are seeking, they will be able to immediately click the category they want to get their results. [Additionally, because Spotlight clusters many user-authored files from different applications into “Documents”, the user can also choose to add a specific filetype (such as Maya or Flash for example) to the source list.] This interface also allows the user to scan a much longer list of search results, without having to scroll. |
