Search in Apple Mail and iTunes: Why oh why did my query go away when I switched context?
I love me some Apple, but I have a problem with the way they implemented search in mail.app and iTunes. Let’s say I want to search for and subscribe to the podcast “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!”. I open iTunes:
Next, I type in my query in the search box:
Oops. It’s searching in my music folder by default. No problem, I’ll just switch it over to iTunes store in the left bar:
Whathuh? Where did my query go? For absolutely no reason, imnsvho, the query is cemented to the context. I now have to retype my query and submit to get a result:
The same sort of silliness happens in Mail.app. If you do a search, you actually get a decent set of filtering options on the result set: [This folder you in which you started the search] • All folders • from • to • subject • etc. But say I started in my inbox and did a search for an item I sent… If I do the search then switch context to my sent folder to filter by [results in the sent folder only], my query field blanks out and I have to retype it.
Is this “feature” trying to solve separate problems—that the query input field and results aren’t perfectly co-located, and/or clearing the query is most obviously done by clicking the tiny x icon next to the input field? I suppose if people typed a search, then decided to go back to normal browse, either of these issues could fool a user into thinking they were seeing their entire blob of mail/tunes, “but for some reason stuff is missing.”
This could be solved by
- Adding cues to make the distinction between “all my stuff” and “a subset of stuff based on your query, filter, or context”
- Grouping the search query (and re-query) field with the results
- Providing an easy mechanism to back out or re-do your search that doesn’t require a mouse gesture (yes, I know there’s a key command in there, but its fabulously undiscoverable)
I also know there are a thousand legitimate reasons why stuff like this doesn’t happen, so my hat’s off to the design and implementation teams for all the good stuff these products do have, and future luck in working out the kinks.
