ForumsQuestionsTerminology: Search


Terminology: Search
Author Message
Folke X

Posted: Aug 30, 2011
Score: 0 Reference
Although it does not matter all that much to me personally, as I have already found my way around here with Toodledo, I still feel it would be in the best interest of new users and of Toodledo as a business and therefore of the Toodledo community as a whole to review and modify the usage of the term Search and some related words.

The word Search, to me, makes me think of something I do on an ad-hoc basis, when I need to look for something special that just popped up in my mind that I normally do not look for specifically.

In Toodledo, whenever this situation arises, an ad-hoc search, I either use the Quick Search or I use the standard view-by-x views, usually Folder, and search optically on the screen. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to consider using the term Search for all these modes of finding tasks.

In Toodledo, there is also a very powerful mechanism called Search, where you can even save your searches and use them as often as you want. Obviously, saving a search is nothing you would typically do for an ad-hoc search. The kinds of "searches" you actually save are the ones you intend to use on a daily basis to manage your life. In other words, they are your "favorite customized views" that you use either instead of, or as a complement to, the predefined views.

Personally, I rely totally on "saved searches" for all my normal things, such as all my hotlists for "Today at work", "Planning overview" etc etc. I hardly ever leave Search. I use the "standard views" only occasionally when I need to do an ad-hoc search, e.g. find a misplaced item. This might seem a bit upside-down, but the question is whether it is really this usage of Toodledo that is upside-down. In my opinion is is rather the terminology that is upside-down.

I understand from the forum that a substantial number of users use saved searches in pretty much the same way I do, so I know I am not alone. The current terminology obscures the fact that Toodledo has one of the most powerful customization feature sets in the market.

I believe it would benefit the whole Toodledo community to consider:

- renaming Search and saved searches to something more descriptive of their actual important main use: "customized views", "streamlined views", "personal workflow views" or something similar.

- renaming the out-of-the-box views (all the view-by-x views and the special-purpose views) to something more descriptive like "standard views", "singular views" or "manual search views" or simply "More views.." (As far as I am concerned they could all be moved one click further away - they do not need such a predominant and potentially confusing presence on every screen.)

- demonstrating the customization potential more clearly, and allowing more frequent one-click access to frequently used views, by substituting the whole fixed "View by" upper portion of the left side bar with a new set of fixed options: first (or maybe last), two new fixed options "Custom views" and "Standard views", both of which would open their respective wealth of further choices (just like today), and thereafter a fixed number, say 12, of reprogrammable "Favorite views", each of which would open the respective view directly (no more clicks). This would make 14 fixed lines in total. For a new user the 12 "favorite views" would be a selection of some of the more commonly used standard views (and maybe some sample predefined "saved searches" - just to illustrate the customization potential), but these "favorite views" would be replaceable at any time by the individual user (e.g. via the Organize menu) once he or she has learned how to use "saved searches" and/or has had the time to try out more of the out-of-the-box views.


This message was edited Aug 30, 2011.
Jake

Toodledo Founder
Posted: Aug 30, 2011
Score: 0 Reference
Thanks for the feedback!
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