Ask HN: What's the best 'non-frustrating' search/directory UI/UX you've seen?

isxek · 9 years ago

If you means something that searches for files within any directory, I think the best so far I've used was Everything (https://www.voidtools.com/). Lightweight, fast, and really simple UI.

I'm still looking for a Linux equivalent (I'm currently using a shell wrapper for `ag --depth 0 -g <pattern> <directory>`.)

lucb1e · 9 years ago

> I'm still looking for a Linux equivalent

You mean `locate`? Package name in Debian is mlocate.

I don't know ag and it's not a package in Debian.

That said, I agree that Everything is a must-have on Windows. I don't understand how Microsoft's own search engine is so incredibly crappy (and has been since, what, Windows 95?) while Everything is a 200KB binary that does it perfectly.

yoo1I · 9 years ago

> I don't know ag and it's not a package in Debian.

You're in for a treat then: the package name is "silversearcher-ag".

Next time you want to grep a directory of files: instead of grepping it, pause, remember this comment, install it and then do "ag <searchterm>" instead.

It's quite a bit faster. Well, lots faster.

e12e · 9 years ago

> I don't know ag

Fair enough, it's been discussed here previously.

> and it's not a package in Debian.

It most certainly is:

https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=silversearcher-a...

Upstream: https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

Lagged2Death · 9 years ago

I use Everything as well, it's really useful, very focused.

It may seem "lightweight" in a modern desktop machine, but I believe the way it works is: it keeps the index of your entire filesystem in RAM at all times. And it continuously monitors that filesystem to keep the index updated. It's kind of brute-force, really. I can think of some ways that could get out of hand and not seem so lightweight.

Regardless, the gap between what Everything can do and what the built-in File Explorer search can do is an embarrassing canyon, and I can't believe MS hasn't even fixed the built-in search enough to make it function correctly let alone quickly at this late stage.

to3m · 9 years ago

I've been happy with Everything, too. Everything is good because it searches by multiple substrings, so you can be precise about what you're looking for. (The much-loved fuzzy search, on the other hand, in my experience returns results that might as well be random, until you type so much of what you're looking for that you might as well have typed the whole thing.)

For searching file content I quite like Agent Ransack aka File Locator: https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack - main thing I like about it is that it's very quick and easy to see the content results from a subset of the file search results.

marmaduke · 9 years ago

Listary is another good one for this, and it chains search results with common actions. From any explorer window or desktop you can just start typing to find stuff.

chevas · 9 years ago

And today I discovered a tool that solves a frustrating problem in Windows, thanks!

digitalengineer · 9 years ago

If we're talking ux it's how people search as well. We've got LATCH for that. Location, alphabet, time, category and hierarchy. On the BBC website people might search for a 'detective' (category), but also might search for 'tomorrow, this week' (time) or 'most viewed' (hierarchy).

retox · 9 years ago

I've always found the search on iPlayer to be next to useless. Haven't got a specific search to demonstrate, stopped using it after I deleted flash. It's a real shame the BBC continue to use flash and recommend Adobe reader when they link to a PDF. I've emailed recommending some alternative but never heard anything back.

whitepoplar · 9 years ago

Maybe it's not what you're looking for, but I've found McMaster-Carr's website to be highly functional in its UI/UX:

http://www.mcmaster.com

cogs · 9 years ago

We built a SQL query tool for the filesystem (macOS) last year, and will be launching for Windows in the next two weeks.

Finding files is pretty straight forward using the LIKE operator against text in the filename, path or file contents. And the set-based logic of SQL works very well for identifying sets of files to work with: we have an exec() command that lets you run commands on file paths returned in query results.

License terms are free for personal use and $5/month commercial.

http://etia.co.uk/

ComodoHacker · 9 years ago

Were you inspired by Microsoft Log Parser?

cogs · 9 years ago

We did look at Log Parser, and osquery, before starting to build Crab, but neither of them have an exec() command to run programs on query results - such as deleting them, unzipping them, or moving them. And Log Parser doesn't support joins either, which are useful to compare the contents of one directory or file with another.

JoshTriplett · 9 years ago

Newegg has one of the most powerful product search/filter mechanisms I've seen. It's not the best UX (could use more performance and a better multi-select mechanism, and dividing the interface into three levels of simple/advanced/power search doesn't seem ideal), but in terms of functionality, it almost always has the features I want pulled out and selectable. Search for a monitor, and you'll get options for resolution, inputs, size, etc.

In terms of raw performance, I'm impressed with the speed and presentation of https://instantdomainsearch.com/ . Instant live responsiveness improves usability significantly.

spking · 9 years ago

I'll second https://instantdomainsearch.com/. Despite lots of copycats and more "feature-rich" alternatives, I find myself using IDS by default because of its speed and simplicity.

tehwalrus · 9 years ago

The very old iTunes search bar. I still miss it.

Basically, because the list of songs was short-ish (in CS terms), it would fiter it based on the current search textbox what seemed like instantly.

I would have a large list and filter it down each time the user types another letter: and concentrate on making that as fast as possible.

0restes · 9 years ago

I do consulting for UX for faceted search, and the top of my shortlist for ideas/inspiration is still http://devart.withgoogle.com/ But for a search engine, I'm interested in how UI that works much like this example would play out: https://material.uplabs.com/posts/google-search-design-conce...

carsongross · 9 years ago

I tend to add live searches in the most important tabular views of my apps, using something like this:

http://intercoolerjs.org/examples/activesearch.html

Search speed, good fuzzy matching and good row/chip design are as important/more important than the basic search UI, IMO.