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UX improvement of new app menu app list selection from search (select second item on `Down arrow`) #9229

Open UndeadDevel opened 1 month ago

UndeadDevel commented 1 month ago

The problem you're addressing (if any)

Launching the first item on Enter from search was a great improvement, but since it's not implemented via an automatic selection of the first item (likely because the search box has to remain selected), there is now a bit of a UX problem introduced: when the user does not want to launch the first item from search, but rather the second (or third, etc.), the user has to now press Down arrow at least twice, since the first item is not actually selected. In other words, the first press of Down arrow from search is now superfluous, as it selects the first item, which can already be launched without pressing Down arrow (by pressing Enter). It is also somewhat confusing, because the first item now looks like it's selected (at first glance), so a user may expect that the combination Down arrow + Enter will launch the second item (it doesn't; it launches the first).

The solution you'd like

It would be nice if Down arrow now selected the second item instead of the first. Edit: this is also the way it works in the Xfce Application Finder.

The value to a user, and who that user might be

Anyone who searches the app menu by keyboard will see a UX improvement, productivity improvement and reduction of confusion.

Completion criteria checklist

(This section is for developer use only. Please do not modify it.)

andrewdavidwong commented 1 month ago

It sounds like the problem is that pressing Enter launches the first item even though the first item isn't selected. Enter should always act on whatever is selected. If the UI were to follow that rule, then this problem would never arise.

If the app menu opens with the search bar selected first, then Enter should act on the search bar, since that's what's selected.

UndeadDevel commented 1 month ago

It sounds like the problem is that pressing Enter launches the first item even though the first item isn't selected.

Sure. However, having worked a little with various Java GUIs, I think it might be that the Xfce Application Finder's functionality (where the first item is always selected while searching) cannot be easily replicated due to limitations in the Python GUI libraries used. I think the intention of marking the first entry was to "simulate" it being selected to make it clear that it will be executed on Enter and to get around the GUI toolkit's limitations. If my hunch is true, then this enhancement request would be about improving the "simulation" such that Down Arrow skips the first item...it's possible that this would be as difficult as changing the library to avoid the simulation in the first place, however, depending on how these things are implemented in the API...but I intuit that it's probably easy to implement such a "hack" (presumably catch the Down Arrow key event on the search bar object and then force selection of the list's second item).