For a list that allows the user to control the order of items, where should new items be inserted?
Hamlet
**Ophelia**
Polonius
After hitting "New Item", where should it go?
Before the current selection:
Hamlet
**New Victim**
Ophelia
Polonius
Or after?
Hamlet
Ophelia
**New Victim**
Polonius
My thoughts:
Before seems more natural by preserving the position of the current selection.
However, when inserting multiple items, they would get inserted in reverse order. In addition, appending an item seems the more common operation but would require manual (additional) sorting.
So I'm leaning to "after", but it feels really weird when used in the middle of a list.
Specifics for the application:
The list is usually short (~5..30 items typical), and visible as a whole.
Creting a new item will also select it.
For some users, the order is an esthetic one (they might have a specific order in mind, but it doesn't affect functionality at all).
(edit) Related question - but Q and A's discuss only top of list, bottom of list, independent of selection, which seems less useful at least in my case