Intercepting Search Button Press - google-tv

Within my application, I would like to intercept when the search button is pressed, and display a fragment that provides the search functionality in our application.
I have attempted to override the Activity.onKeyDown, Activity.dispatchKeyEvent, Activity.onKeyUp Activity.onSearchRequested, and setting the appropriate listeners on all the views within the activity.
However, none of these methods are ever called when the search button is pressed, and the standard GoogleTV search box is displayed.
What is the correct way to intercept the search button?
Thanks

Unfortunately, for Google TV, you can't intercept the Search Key. User testing said this was a problem, so Search is always global. You should have a Search Icon on your layout somewhere.

Can't help wondering if your users were tested with apps that have Search icons elsewhere in their layout, per your suggestion. :-/ It's not a happy user experience, trust me. Neither is the current scheme for search in the default Google TV music player.
How many users were tested, and what are the prospects of retesting them?

Related

Any iOS UI control similar to the volume change popup?

I'd like to notify my users when something like a request failure occurs. However, I don't want to interrupt the user by using a popup style alert. I'm looking for something like when you change the volume on the device and that translucent icon pops up and fades away after a second or two. During the time the icon is showing, the user can still interact with the app as if it weren't there.
I looked in the HIG, but I couldn't find any such UI control that is native to iOS. Are there any good open source controls that do this?
There's an excellent control for a HUD-style popup called SVStatusHUD. I belive it does exactly what you're looking for:

UISearchBar - what is "search results button" for?

(Duplicate of this question, but I figured I could try again, since that one wasn't answered...)
The UISearchBar on the iPhone has an option showsSearchResultsButton. When you turn it on, it shows a button with horizontal lines inside the search bar, and you can implement a callback that will be called when the user presses it.
The thing is, I can't find a single place on the Internet where it says what the intended purpose of this button is. I know I could make it do anything, but I'd like to know what it's actually for. Should it show a history of searches, or all items without filtering, or what?
It's simply to show search results when tapped.
Where Apple uses this is in their iPad App Store application. If you go to the Categories tab you'll see various app categories. Search for an item, you'll get a list of results, and when you press "Done" you are shown the categories screen again. Your previous search term is still listed in the search field, but now the Search Results Button appears in the field. After tapping this, a UIPopOver is displayed, showing a text list of the results from your last search.

Android delete from listview, user experience

I've seen how iphone users delete from lists - its generally a swipe action and then shows some minus/remove button.
I realize that it is counterproductive to implement iphone things on android because android users don't know this stuff.
I don't want to do that, I just don't know of a better/intuitive way to delete from a listview.
I've previously opted for doing "longclicks" on listview items, which will show an alertdialog asking if you want to delete or do other things, but this is never an obvious thing to do.
I've seen delete buttons that are shown in each view, but that messes with the layout of the listview, in a way that wasnt' considered in the wireframes.
What is a good intuitive way to allow the user to remove items from listviews on android?
Here's my two cents before I pitch my answer. Any one who has an android phone is going to know or eventually find out that longclicks often lead to another menu. Yes, it's not immediately obvious but they are going to figure it out just as iphone users have figured out the swipe action is to delete.
If you really want a fool proof way for a user to know how to delete, I would implement checkBoxes. (More on check boxes here)If the user checks the item, bring up a "soft menu" at the bottom that has a bunch of options normally associated with long clicks.
If you look at the gmail application and check a box, you'll see what I mean when I say "soft menu".
Another way you could go would be to implement check box, then have "menu options." Every android user should be able to see and figure out the menu button on their device, all devices have them. Make one of the menu options delete and you're all set.
http://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/menu_design.html#options_menu
I agree that long click is horrible, but it is the standard on Android; people are more likely to be able to discover using this than any alternative gesture.
Also, put in a delete menu item on the Activity you get to after selecting something from the ListView.
In my view you should add checkbox to your list view and give a separate button for deleting items from list I mean to say that add a delete button in the layout in which your list view is also present and when user checks the item which he/she wants to delete and click on the delete button,the item which is checked by the user gets remove from list.

Select dropdown list accessibility/usability

I am trying to find the most usable/accessible way to implement a simple form dropdown list which will sort a list of products by pice and alphabetical order.
In your opinion is the dropdown more usable when there is a button that governs its submission or when it automatically submits onchange of the dropdown?
The research I have read is both for and against such methods and there is a variery of implementations on the web so interest to hear the thoughts of the community.
Thanks in advance
As a blind computer user either method works fine. I find that having a button to click is slightly easier for me then the onchange event firing. I wouldn't say it's a big enough difference to take into account though assuming the majority of your users will not be disabled. If your targeting specifically blind users I would not use the onchange event.
So long as you do not change focus or navigate to another page when the selection changes, either approach should work. The classic example of a problem dropdown is where it contains a list of other pages on the site, and navigates as soon as the selection changes. This prevents a keyboard user from using the list; they can't browse it, and can't navigate to any pages beyond the first selection, since it's impossible to navigate past those. So in cases where focus changes or the page navigates as a consequence, having a separate action (eg. Go button, or handling enter) to cause the navigation to take place is essential. This is likely where the advice you've read is coming from.
In this case, however, it sounds as though you are just updating content elsewhere on the page, and not changing focus or doing navigation. Simply resorting existing content should be fine.
Depends on your users and their respective expectations and the context in which it's presented.
As a blanket, general statement, you should have the drop down accompanied by very obvious submission button. That is the safer approach.
If you are refreshing page data or if the focus moves away after the dropdown option is selected, you should use a button to be accessible. If you fire the event on change, blind or keyboard-only users will not be able to use the dropdown menu at all if they are on windows with ie and chrome (so added together, a majority of the people on windows). As soon as they use the arrows to scroll down and make a selection, the first option they hit will be selected and the page data will refresh or the focus will move, making it impossible for them to navigate or select the second option, third option, etc. Below is a thorough explanation with examples so you can see what I mean.
Designers definitely don't like the buttons, but if you are blind and on chrome/ie, it is impossible to use a lot of dropdowns without it. I'm guessing Jared uses firefox or a mac.
http://pauljadam.com/blog/javascript/onchange-event-on-a-select-inputjump-menu-accessibility-problems/

how do you pop up the Save Image/Open in New Page/Copy menu on command in mobile safari?

I need to find out how to make the menu that appears in mobile safari on the iphone/touch when you tap & hold an element appear on a single tap without having to hold. how would i do this? preferably i would use webkit & no js.
UIWebView does not does not call any methods until a link is actually activated, and it does not expose any information about its subviews. There is no way to do with current SDK, you should file a bug with Apple if you need this functionality.