4 ms·

I have a similar but unrelated problem. The searching seems to be... non-deterministic or something, it's weird. Like if I'm after a program, let's call it "uni

by sk0g 5y ago

I have a similar but unrelated problem. The searching seems to be... non-deterministic or something, it's weird. Like if I'm after a program, let's call it "uniquator". That program may be the first suggestion for "uni", but after q another random program, or search suggestion, or some Store shovelware would be the top suggestion. It doesn't sound annoying, but it means you often hit enter mid-typing, only for the top suggestion to change right as you are hitting enter.

happytoexplain 5y ago
This is a common autocomplete/top-result UX mistake. If typing a substring of X autocompletes to X, then typing more of that substring of X, contiguously, must also autocomplete to X. This is a no-brainer (having the result change before you can stop yourself from hitting enter is easily one of the most frustrating things in all UX). However, it seems like people implementing clever auto-complete rules just don't care (I absolutely refuse to believe it's ignorance - it's impossible to be unaware of this problem if you're implementing autocomplete). I assume the issue is poor decision making about rule conflicts. E.g., what's higher priority: Consistency, or exact-match? E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I think it's "obvious" that consistency is more important here. If the user wants "Photos" despite opening "Photoshop" more often, let them configure the search explicitly to prioritize it, or allow them to select from a list of multiple matches. And that's just a comparison against a single conflicting rule. Now imagine all the obscure rules they've implemented, for reasons varying from a misguided drive for "features" to nefariously pushing the user to click on what they want them to.
- Maxion 5y ago
  This is a big issue with a lot of ML algorithms - it causes issues with consistency. Prioritising apps in auto complete search should be done with a simple tally of how many times the user has opened the program, perhaps as a rolling n days or something. Either way, that causes consistency. If you have some ML algorithm that takes into account how long the window of the app has been visible or in focus or a bunch of other weird features will cause poor UX the moment the baby projectile vomits across the room while the dog has diarrhea that the robot vaccuum spread all over the room. Suddenly you have some esoteric app called PhotosResizer2000 stay in focus for 8 hours while you deal with the emergency from which point onward the ML algorithm will suggest this app whenever you start to type Pho...
- Lewton 5y ago
  > I assume the issue is poor decision making about rule conflicts. E.g., what's higher priority: Consistency, or exact-match? E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I suspect it's even worse than this. It seems to be something along the lines of "oh you typed pho, and got photoshop, but then typed t, so clearly photoshop wasn't what you wanted, since we already suggested that" That's the only way I can explain windows "flip between several app suggestions every time a new letter is typed" behavior
  - blackboxlogic 5y ago
    I assumed it was a simple race condition. when I type "about" + enter, half the time I get my computers specs, and half the time it vomits up something regarding java.
- starky 5y ago
  >E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I think it's "obvious" that consistency is more important here. Regardless of what you want the behaviour to be, the behaviour shouldn't be, as it is on my system: "pho" = Photos "photo" = Photoshop "photos" = Photos And as I type this to confirm what happens after, now "photos" completed to photoshop, despite not selecting anything since the last time I typed it... There is a good reason why I use either the Powertoys Run or Launchy on every system I touch.
- f1refly 5y ago
  An even more infuriating effect I got is when I make typo during search. For example, I might want to launch League of Legends. I press super key, enter "Leageu of", see right logo, press enter, but instead of launching the entry that it definitely knows about, it will start a bing search, with my typo corrected. In edge of course, because we cannot change that as well. Thanks, microsoft.
mcswell 5y ago
I've seen that too in Win10, with several different apps with different names. The 'terminal' for example, s.t. some other gizzy (web page? I don't know) instead of the terminal, which I use ever day (so it's not like what comes up first is your most frequently used app whose name begins with the letters you've typed so far). Extremely annoying, have to wait until it settles and hope that you can cursor down (or up) to the app you really want.
pjerem 5y ago
Ah yes ! Nothing better to start the day than to type "term", Terminal appears furtively, "i" Enter. "Would you like to make edge your default browser ?" No !! "3 results for termi - bing"

by sk0g 5y ago

happytoexplain 5y ago

This is a common autocomplete/top-result UX mistake. If typing a substring of X autocompletes to X, then typing more of that substring of X, contiguously, must also autocomplete to X. This is a no-brainer (having the result change before you can stop yourself from hitting enter is easily one of the most frustrating things in all UX). However, it seems like people implementing clever auto-complete rules just don't care (I absolutely refuse to believe it's ignorance - it's impossible to be unaware of this problem if you're implementing autocomplete). I assume the issue is poor decision making about rule conflicts. E.g., what's higher priority: Consistency, or exact-match? E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I think it's "obvious" that consistency is more important here. If the user wants "Photos" despite opening "Photoshop" more often, let them configure the search explicitly to prioritize it, or allow them to select from a list of multiple matches. And that's just a comparison against a single conflicting rule. Now imagine all the obscure rules they've implemented, for reasons varying from a misguided drive for "features" to nefariously pushing the user to click on what they want them to.

Maxion 5y ago
This is a big issue with a lot of ML algorithms - it causes issues with consistency. Prioritising apps in auto complete search should be done with a simple tally of how many times the user has opened the program, perhaps as a rolling n days or something. Either way, that causes consistency. If you have some ML algorithm that takes into account how long the window of the app has been visible or in focus or a bunch of other weird features will cause poor UX the moment the baby projectile vomits across the room while the dog has diarrhea that the robot vaccuum spread all over the room. Suddenly you have some esoteric app called PhotosResizer2000 stay in focus for 8 hours while you deal with the emergency from which point onward the ML algorithm will suggest this app whenever you start to type Pho...
Lewton 5y ago
> I assume the issue is poor decision making about rule conflicts. E.g., what's higher priority: Consistency, or exact-match? E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I suspect it's even worse than this. It seems to be something along the lines of "oh you typed pho, and got photoshop, but then typed t, so clearly photoshop wasn't what you wanted, since we already suggested that" That's the only way I can explain windows "flip between several app suggestions every time a new letter is typed" behavior
- blackboxlogic 5y ago
  I assumed it was a simple race condition. when I type "about" + enter, half the time I get my computers specs, and half the time it vomits up something regarding java.
starky 5y ago
>E.g. if "photo" auto-completes to "Photoshop", should "photos" auto-complete to "Photoshop" or "Photos"? I think it's "obvious" that consistency is more important here. Regardless of what you want the behaviour to be, the behaviour shouldn't be, as it is on my system: "pho" = Photos "photo" = Photoshop "photos" = Photos And as I type this to confirm what happens after, now "photos" completed to photoshop, despite not selecting anything since the last time I typed it... There is a good reason why I use either the Powertoys Run or Launchy on every system I touch.
f1refly 5y ago
An even more infuriating effect I got is when I make typo during search. For example, I might want to launch League of Legends. I press super key, enter "Leageu of", see right logo, press enter, but instead of launching the entry that it definitely knows about, it will start a bing search, with my typo corrected. In edge of course, because we cannot change that as well. Thanks, microsoft.

mcswell 5y ago

I've seen that too in Win10, with several different apps with different names. The 'terminal' for example, s.t. some other gizzy (web page? I don't know) instead of the terminal, which I use ever day (so it's not like what comes up first is your most frequently used app whose name begins with the letters you've typed so far). Extremely annoying, have to wait until it settles and hope that you can cursor down (or up) to the app you really want.

pjerem 5y ago

Ah yes ! Nothing better to start the day than to type "term", Terminal appears furtively, "i" Enter. "Would you like to make edge your default browser ?" No !! "3 results for termi - bing"