The Advanced Search tab enables users to search for items based on Properties, Name, and so on. This is a super great feature!

However, there are some confusing aspects of how this is currently implemented. For example, if you don't enter any search string and run one of the keyword-style searches, everything currently in memory is returned, but only for items that have the property being searched. (Previously a Java exception was thrown - the exception is fixed in IGBF-2011.) This "return everything" behavior does not happen with the residues search, however. In that case, a dialog appears informing the user that the nothing was entered.

This is not a great behavior, either. To proceed, the user has to click the "close" button on the dialog, which interrupts flow.

Idea for improvement:

The table where search results appear contains nothing if a search has failed or has not yet been run. This area would be the perfect place to show some sort of feedback message to the user letting them know if there was a problem with their search. Instead showing a dialog in a separate window, we could show the message there instead.

I think this would improve the user experience a lot because it would save a click and would not be quite so jarring. It's good design (in my view) to encourage users to explore and try out different things, particularly with a complex, feature-rich application such as IGB. Showing a new dialog that requires a click to close each time the user makes a "mistake" discourages exploration of the UI.

Another issue:

In any of the searches, if you enter a * (asterisk) character, which usually means "match anything and everything", a cryptic error message about regular expressions appears in a new dialog. To proceed, the user has to click the "close" button on the dialog.

It is a great idea to give users feedback to let them know how their action has affected the system. But it is not a good idea to distract them from the task at hand by showing popups.