#UX/UI topic - Search across MA - Global search and detailed search

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tulip siren
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The subject of search came up during a Music Assistant dev team meeting while we were discussing this PR ‘Add new app panel’ re. Allowing the HA nav bar/toolbar to be hidden https://github.com/home-assistant/frontend/pull/28214 .

Search currently functions in MA but it could be improved. After looking at Roon and how they also utilise tags, recent search history and also searching when in a detail section e.g. searching for a specific album while in an artist page. We spoke about why and how these searches can be improved and why they might need slightly different experiences in combination with other features like filters. There’s also a complex connected issue of when search becomes innately connected to filtering and vice versa. We’re going to try to focus on search for now and set aside filtering and other methods of narrowing down to find what you need in MA. Search should be configured for all kinds of users, from the confident expert to the not sure novice user. Search should ideally get a user to an accurate result quickly as well as balancing opportunities for exploration or suggesting the possibilities of exploration outside of what a user knows they want to search for. Please avoid standardising your own experience for other users.

Topics to discuss/give feedback on

  1. How do you most commonly use global search (search when not in a specific artist or section). For what is global search most useful for you?
  2. How often (if at all) do you use other ways of finding what you need? e.g filters, favourites, making a playlist etc.
  3. How often does search give you what you need vs. a non-useful search result? How could a search interface better help you find what you need and can you detail a scenario of what you needed and how you searched and how you would have preferred that exp to be.
  4. Can you describe the most common search state that you’re in as a user? Is it an explorative state more often than it’s a quick/urgent need?
void bramble
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  1. I search only from the global search. I search daily. Even if something is in my library, it’s so simple to just search. I search for everything, tracks, artist, album.
  2. I never search on other view than the global search. I very frequently jump between tracks album, artist and back. I manage my playlists on tidal. Use them on MA.
  3. I’d say search is 70% ok. The 30% remaining it’s either too slow or not flexible enough when it comes to typos and I fallback to listening on Tidal. Mostly speed. Especially since the remote connection feature. The app is much much slower.
  4. I search things I already know. I never explore from search.
spice patio
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Here is an interesting problem that would be good to solve from a user on GitHub

Hi everyone!
Music Assistant is turning into a really good Streaming Solution, but there is an issue, at least for me...
I listen to classical music almost exclusively, and finding Albums and Tracks is often gery difficult. The reason is, that there are often several different ways to write the name of a certain composer or piece. Streaming apps usually take care of that by having a pretty relaxed search engine, but Music Assistant requires the exact spelling.
Examples: Tschaikowsky can also he written Tschaikovsky or Tchaikovsky. There are also additional variants.
Symphony can be Sinfonie, Symphonie or Symphony etc.
It would be immensely helpful, if Music Assistant could make the search engine a bit more lenient, flexible or intelligent to take things like that into account.
Thanks!