I've made a number of such improvements in r42522, but it got reverted because I didn't get around to fully debug it and since the interface could've been prettier. I don't have time to poke at it ATM, but if anyone wants to pick it up, please do!

Cheers, Robert

On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 1:13 PM, FT2 ft2.wiki@gmail.com wrote:

While search is being updated, a small plea for a slightly better interface to namespace selection (and advanced options generally).

(1)

At the moment namespace is 18 check boxes at the bottom of the page. A lot of clicking, each in its own box. Changing this to a list box (allowing CTRL-CLICK or selection/deselection of multiple namespaces in one action) would make this much easier to enter. Possibly also the ability in the config file for a wiki sysadmin to specify some standard options for simplicity:

• Articles

• Articles and article discussion

• Articles, discussion, project space, and project talk

• Project and project talk spaces

• Images, categories, templates and their talk pages

• All namespaces

• Custom

or an option "Also search talk pages". But some way to make namespace selection easier.

(2)

A number of the options available will be inaccessible to many users because they need to be typed in as a parameterized search text. I'm going to guess most users will not access the new features, even though extremely helpful, because of lack of confidence. As with Google advanced search, one solution might be an "advanced search" interface where different fields can be entered and the user is guided what to put in, for each. It may be a good idea if we're beefing up internal search, to also ensure users discover the new features and can easily access them :)

FT2 _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

Hello,

I agree that the search interface deserves some reconditioning.

The search interface is the first entry point for many users. Thus, it needs to be designed as simple as possible. I guess my grandma would be completely overextended by the current one with its dozens of options.

I propose to completely forget thinking about namespaces. The vast majority of users doesn't even know what namespaces are. The typical user comes to Wikipedia and hits the search button, because he's just interested in ns 0, so ns 0 should be the default.

On the other hand, some users, mostly our contributors, need other search options. Although they have an understanding about namespaces, they visit the search interface with the intention to find something either on a talk page, an image description page, a project page or something similar. Most of them do not intend to search the talk namespace, the image namespace, or the Wikipedia namespace. It's the search interface that forces people to transform their search destinations into namespace names.

I admit that namespace names are quite self-explanatory, so we don't have a serious problem here. Though, a good user interface doesn't force users into an unnatural way of thinking. Namespaces are MediaWikis technical way to devide pages up, they are not the way how ordinary people think. The appropriate way of handling this would of course be MediaWiki internally mapping common search options to predefined sets of namespaces.

In conclusion, we should have a search interface containing three basic elements: - a big search box -- Google has a simple front page with a centralised search box for a reason - some common options, like those proposed by FT2:

On 31.10.2008 13:13:13, FT2 wrote:

• Articles
• Articles and article discussion
• Articles, discussion, project space, and project talk
• Project and project talk spaces
• Images, categories, templates and their talk pages
• All namespaces
• Custom

- and finally a "Go" button.

Leon