an object used to operate a physical or virtual device. For questions regarding how to present and implement controls for a particular interface or interaction.
28
votes
7answers
3k views
Intuitive interface for Composing Boolean Logic?
I'm interested to know how people have, or would construct an interface which simplifies constructing logical boolean conditions? (Yes, it's a database query builder) In my mind a bad interface has ...
21
votes
13answers
1k views
Is it better to prevent a forbidden action or display an error/explanation message?
There are multiple examples, so I'll pick a specific one to focus the question.
Let's say a user can have specific characteristics (or permissions):
Admin, Virtual, External, Financial, etc.
To ...
16
votes
2answers
3k views
accordions vs tabs
What is difference between accordions and tabs from the UX point of view?
This is repost from this thread on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5690589/difference-between-accordion-and-tabs
(I ...
27
votes
11answers
5k views
Most User-Friendly Form Fields for Entering Date/Time?
What are the different ways to have fields in an application for date, time, or both? What are the pros and cons for each?
The most common seem to be a combination of 2–3 drop-downs, or some form ...
15
votes
9answers
2k views
What's the best way to present date of birth form fields?
I am building a form that requires users to enter in their DOB. What is the best practice for this? I have identified 3 basic options:
Free Text Field Users are able to enter day, month and year in ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
How to display the hierarchical data [closed]
Some real ui javascript library wanted!
I have to display some hierarchical data on the web page. It should not be a classical tree view with the text items. I am looking for a graphical ...
11
votes
9answers
1k views
Scrollbar on the left
Is there a deep study that suggests to place a scrollbar on the right? Personally I move it to the left whenever it's possible (firefox allow this, as well as xterm and emacs).
I know that placing a ...
11
votes
3answers
1k views
Are tri-state checkboxes too complicated?
Normal checkboxes are easy, they have a checked state, and an unchecked state. But how do you go about indicating a third state for a tri-state checkbox? Is it too difficult for the user to discover ...
6
votes
6answers
326 views
Suitable alternative to trackbar control
I use a track bar control in two different places in an touch-screen application I have. The first to record a specific amount of Data. (lets say 260 samples) the second to record an unlimited amount ...
3
votes
4answers
295 views
Location of new items in list
I have a medium-sized list (about a few dozen items, the container is very likely to have internal vertical scrolling). There is no sorting, so items are displayed in the order of their addition to ...
2
votes
2answers
229 views
A dialog to set up working hours
I've got a dialog that helps an user to set up working hours for different days in a week. In this dialog an user can choose a day of week and hours/minutes which point on start/end of working time, ...
7
votes
3answers
2k views
Tri-state checkbox: Which state should be selected after clicking?
There is a hierarchy of selectable items, let's say a parent and two children. All three items have checkboxes. When both children are checked, the parent's checkbox is also checked. When both ...
4
votes
3answers
329 views
User control for a two level selection
I'm about to develop an application that will be used by revisers to compile the errors they find while reviewing a translation. The application will consist of a simple form in which they will have ...
8
votes
5answers
536 views
What's a clean way to implement two checkboxes that can be “ANDed” or “ORed”?
I have a pretty standard search form on a web site that will return records based on various criteria. Let's assume each record corresponds with a person. A person can have a dog, a car, neither, or ...
8
votes
4answers
295 views
How do I add the ability to cancel editing without a button?
We currently have an interface pattern that consists of a list of rows; clicking on one row activates "edit mode", where the lables turn into text-boxes, afterwards you can either save or cancel.
...
13
votes
6answers
531 views
Greyed-Out vs Invisible
What is a good criterion or rule-of-thumb for determining when a control should be greyed-out and when should it be completely invisible?
8
votes
2answers
143 views
What's the official name of concept of input boxes with tags?
I'm looking for an implementation and the (official) name of this kind of control where it's a inputbox where we can add multiple tags into it. By example, it is used in JIRA like this capture (and ...
13
votes
4answers
418 views
Should radio options be displayed vertically or horizontally?
For Example:
Results must match () All () Any () None Of the search criteria
vs
Results must match () All of the search criteria
() Any
() None
The ...
8
votes
3answers
226 views
Default input labels and text sizes
Looking to get community feedback on a few small related form questions:
For standard forms:
How long should a standard text box input be? These text boxes would be for first and last name?
Should ...
6
votes
4answers
359 views
Common/accepted name for “dropdown menus” and related kin?
What is the proper name for the UI element created by the HTML <select>...</select>?
What is the name if the user is allowed to type in their own answer (not just autocomplete to pick ...
4
votes
3answers
895 views
What could I use for a tri-state control?
I'm trying to think of a nice element where there are 3 states, but a simple checkbox would be a litlte overkill for what I want (I'd need two), as the states are:
Enabled
Default
Disabled
But I ...
4
votes
2answers
423 views
Alternative control to drag and drop for assigning tasks to an individual?
I am working on a web application for Branch Managers at an investment bank to assign accounts that are without Financial Advisers for whatever reason. Some reasons are the Financial Adviser has ...
3
votes
1answer
286 views
ux review word for select all
Is is ok to use Select/Deselect All here or better to shorten it to only select all.
Would the users know that if they uncheck the "select all" checkbox. Everything will be disselected
2
votes
4answers
295 views
Combining email and phone inputs into a single text field
Let's say you want to combine both email and phone input into a single text field because you require either or, not both. What's the best way would you approach this? As far as making it clear ...
1
vote
0answers
31 views
CLI: How should I order arguments to my import/export commands?
I'm developing a distributed project management tool with a command line interface. I have two commands relating to initially copying a project to/from a hub. The export command looks like this:
prog ...
1
vote
3answers
503 views
Project dependency visualization and navigation
I have to visualize software project dependencies and provide a way to navigate through the dependencies. I want to combine showing the dependencies of the currently selected project as well as ...
