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Human Interface Guidelines/The Laptop Experience/The Journal (view source)
Revision as of 14:40, 7 February 2007
, 14:40, 7 February 2007→Powerful Search, Filter & Sort
=====Searching=====
=====Searching=====
The search field provides the most direct means of locating a particular Journal entry. In order to find anything on their laptop, a child need merely describe it, since the tags she's associated with it already appear within its description field. Her searches also apply to the metadata associated with the entry by either the Journal or the activity that created it, making it even easier to find things.
The search field provides the most direct means of locating a particular Journal entry, returning instant results as the search is typed, and offering auto-completion for popular tags. In order to find anything on their laptop, a child need merely describe it, since the tags she's associated with it already appear within its description field. Her searches also apply to the metadata associated with the entry by either the Journal or the activity that created it, making it even easier to find things.
For simplicity, the search field will employ OR logic to all terms entered, which ensures the least amount of confusion when used by children who don't yet understand boolean logic. As such, a search for "orange cat" will return a list of everything orange and also every cat. Of course, any entries tagged with both orange and with cat will match more strongly, and will automatically filter to the top of the results. However, in keeping with a primary goal of the laptops, this won't eliminate the possibility for more complex boolean searches. Full support for AND, OR, NOT, and parenthetical grouping of terms will be built into the search engine, providing advanced functionality for those who desire to enter more complex queries.
For simplicity, the search field will employ OR logic to all terms entered, which ensures the least amount of confusion when used by children who don't yet understand boolean logic. As such, a search for "orange cat" will return a list of everything orange and also every cat. Of course, any entries tagged with both orange and with cat will match more strongly, and will automatically filter to the top of the results. However, in keeping with a primary goal of the laptops, this won't eliminate the possibility for more complex boolean searches. Full support for AND, OR, NOT, and parenthetical grouping of terms will be built into the search engine, providing advanced functionality for those who desire to enter more complex queries.
Since the laptops will find themselves in the hands of many children, additional modifications to the search algorithm will assist them as they grow. The youngest children who receive them will still be learning how to spell, and those that can may still require some time to learn typing skills. For these reasons, a fuzzy match algorithm will assist the children, returning some results even when the corresponding tags don't match what they typed exactly. This algorithm is adaptive, and so as they become more comfortable with their language and with using the technology, the extent of the fuzziness and therefore the number of fuzzy results returned will lessen, preventing false matches from aggravating more advanced users. Several other kinds of fuzziness could also be applied, though such possibilities are only speculation at this point. For instance, fuzzy matches based on thesaurus entries could turn up items tagged with "funny" even when the child searches for "humorous". Likewise, translation fuzziness could return an entry tagged with "cat", even though the child searched for "gato." These advanced fuzziness algorithms could prove invaluable in a laptop community that has been built with sharing and collaboration in mind.
=====Filtering=====
=====Filtering=====
Support for basic filtering also exists within the journal. The search and filter functionality appear together in the toolbar, since searching could also be interpreted as filtering by tags. Additionally, their appearance together allows an easy method for the children to visually construct their query in a sentence-like format.
Support for basic filtering also exists within the journal. The search and filter functionality appear together in the toolbar, since searching could also be interpreted as filtering by tags. Additionally, their appearance together allows an easy method for the children to visually construct their query in a sentence-like format, with relevant parts of their query displayed as icons — just as those within the entries themselves — for visual reinforcement.
Several fundamental filters exist. First and foremost, there is an advanced date filter, which can only be expected in a Journal organized temporally by default. This control will present a timeline to the child, with visual indication over the length of the timeline of the number of entries present in the Journal from any given point in time. By expanding and contracting the selected area she can select anything from a single day to all time, and by sliding the selection through time, she can filter out all entries that don't lie within the specified range. Bother basic filters include the activity that the entry represent, and the activity participants.
Other available filters allow children to locate specific kinds of entries. For instance, a child may want to view all entries that have been flagged by the Journal for possible removal when memory becomes low. They may also want to see al the their notes, or to-dos, or events. They could also show only starred items, or in progress items, and more. The system will provide adequate flexibility for finding anything in the Journal nearly instantaneously.