Hot answers tagged data
16
It depends. It depends mainly on how users will be locating the data they are interested in.
Numerical Stats in a Row
If the page is repeating the same stats groupings in the same order, then positional memory will be used, and the numbers themselves also cue the reader in to positioning - Best bowling 5/45 has a different form to Economy Rate 1.51 and ...
13
A dropdown with 450+ values is extremely unusable on any device, including desktop. But you say that you're only looking for a solution for the basic mobile version, so let's stick to that.
Probably the best way to simplify this for the mobile is to have a first screen/popup display the alphabet, then as you tap a letter you drill down to the list of ...
11
Considering your content is like most where the user will be reading the data more often.
For example consider where your eyes go first:
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Bowling Pins: 32
and now the opposite:
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Bowling Pins: 32
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They user will come to the page for the first time and: See the bold data, than look at what they represent.
The user will return to look up the data ...
10
Depending on the nature of data, you can use Tufte's Sparklines. This approach combines text, color and small graphics. Google Analytics makes use of this approach in their control panel:
10
Unless you have auto complete, a list with 450+ options is never very user friendly, and always hard to use, especially when you even allow multiple selections.
Given that the task to add books to the library is a very common one, that should be done fast, I would propose a more simpler backend-powered solution using two simple steps:
First the user is ...
10
From a UX perspective, there is no reason that the sum has to be 100. You may be thinking in terms of percentages, but it is trivial to scale them up or down to make the net effect 100.
What usually matters in weighting is the weight of a single item relative to the total weight. You can easily calculate this, so there is no need to burden a user with ...
9
I think going iconic is only going to add vagueness and detract from the value that a number gives you. Users are pretty good at scanning a column of numbers and interpreting them.
I'd suggest keep the ranking as an integer number. Put the 'out of' in the header of the table.
If you do actually have eighteen thousand companies, then consider whether the ...
9
So, how do you define the minimum value?
Tuftes’ data density is really about three principles: (1) Above all else, show the data, (2) Maximize the data-ink ratio and (3) Erase non-data ink. In its extreme this could be interpreted as small as possible human could read. We’re talking about font-sizes as small as 3 pixels, but practically 5 pixels which ...
8
Why not try something like what you get in the iOS Mail app.
A simple text input field
Drop down auto suggest (just like in Google Search)
When you have added a single item (like author in your case), you can type another one, by pushing the + button at the end of the input field (and previously entered items can be deleted ony by one.)
This solution ...
7
I think you are going to be hard pressed to find many such studies because they are both very valid use cases that can, and should, live side by side. For example, if I am looking to purchase a snowboard I may go to a commerce website and browse their snowboards section. Alternately, if I am looking for a snowboard with the picture of a yeti on it I may ...
7
Maybe these designs can be useful to you
15 Tips for Designing Terrific Tables
30+ Nicest Table CSS Designs You Can Apply Into Your Project
Tables in Web Design: Beautiful Examples and Best Practices
HTML Table Building: 30+ Beautiful Examples And Useful Javascripts
7
The problem with tabs within tabs is mostly visual, not logical. The situation you describe has three navigation levels - that's not that uncommon. If you make the different navigation levels look different from one another, you'll find that the perceived complexity is reduced.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
6
What is the basis for your concern? Are you guessing or do you have data? That's the first step: actually ask your users whether this is confusing or not. Perhaps they understand just fine.
One immediate thing I would change, however, is to have the "use logarithmic scale" and the actual readout on the Y axis be more visually connected. Consider actually ...
6
A common web interface for this task is to have the items in a list, with the posibility to search and sort the list. The rightmost (last) column has an edit button, when clicked makes the row editable and switches the edit button to two new buttons - "save" and "cancel".
After the row has been updated, make sure to give the user feedback if the the save ...
6
Often, role-laying games has encountered a similar problem. The player has to balance the limited character-points between the different skills.
They sometimes solve this with scroll bars, or spin-buttons. But the real magic (pun intended) is when allocating more point (or percentage) to one item automatically draws out points from the other items. This ...
5
This paper discusses the effect of different relative progress bars that increase non-linearly with the actual progress:
Our results suggest that users are most willing to tolerate negative progress behavior (e.g., stalls and inconsistent progress) at the beginning of an operation. Hence, process stages can be arranged such that the slower or variable ...
5
Percentage should be used when a fine measure of progress is needed, or when the process is lengthy and you want to make sure the users are aware of any progress, small as it can be.
Steps are more appropriate when there is a small number of progression points, and when the time frame for the completion of each step is clear.
For example, file copy ...
5
I had to do something similar for mapping virtual channels in an ATM switch.
Adapting this to your situation:
Check-as-you-go: Remove the restriction of all rows changing together by working on a shadow table. This is the only sane way to make your warnings and error messages be timely and make sense. When everything is OK, then the user can commit ...
5
What exactly does empty mean to the user? How do you want them to respond? Be as specific as you can be for the user to react appropriately. This interacts with the data type to suggest the best representation.
A Blank
An empty blank is clear enough for most string data types (e.g., names, addresses) and probably dates and times too. This is the preferred ...
5
Do you want to draw the users attentions to the lack of a value?
If Yes
"N/A" or some kind of graphic in a distinct color would be best.
If No,
You need something that is not visually distracting but is still easy to read.
The "easy to read" part can be tricky. An empty cell or an empty cell with a subtle background color like grey would be my ...
5
Like most design decisions context is key.
If this is a dashboard like situation where a visual hierarchy needs to be formed, then my first guess would be to bold the data. Like jonshariat mentioned, this will make it easier for users to scan the page and find the data they are looking for. On the other hand, if this is in a table or in an area where ...
5
I've added a couple of collections as comments at the top.
Connie Malamed who Wrote understanding graphics wrote a popular article about designing effective data tables which I helped explain through visualization and examples in my own somewhat lengthy resource on Effective design of data tables. Connie's original article is here.
The points made in both ...
5
What about simply graying out the line where the data doesn't exist / is unreliable?
That way you can pick back up when you're in-range again, but there's an indication that there was a problem.
EDIT: Assuming your "out of ranges" are always trackable right up to the top/bottom of the range, the end-result would look more like this:
EDIT 2:For small ...
5
You're right: that's a ton of data.
You can keep the concept of expanding sections, but first determine what is the most important information in each section, and second rearrange how you are displaying them.
In the expanded Milestone Dates section, what is more important: the most recently completed milestone, the fact that something has recently been ...
5
There's absolutely no reason for all of that info to be on one page. Such a number of options is overwhelming to the user and makes it incredibly hard to find what they're looking for (especially with the sparse negative space & extra-bold font you have there). You're already doing progressive disclosure (accordion) so moving them into a dedicated tab ...
5
Rather than disabling or removing controls, you could show counts besides the unused filter criteria like so:
There are a few pro's to an approach like this:
Users can know whether filtering on a given criteria is useful before taking any action, so there are fewer wasted actions.
Users can tell how useful a criteria will be at narrowing results.
...
5
Maybe the downside of a a progress bar is that user will associate it with "percentage complete", which is not exactly what you are displaying. But I don't think the idea of a progress bar is bad. Maybe you just need to make it look slightly different.
For instance:
This is still exactly the same as progress bar, it also shows a percentage, but the ...
5
My idea:
If you want to show the movement data to someone who is a bit more pragmatic, instead of using line charts, you could use a simplified map of the place.
Each building - a rectangle
Each person - a tiny circle/square
Each department - a color-coded row of persons;if you want to track
individuals as well, you could asign to each person a specific
...
5
Generally it is easier to work with data that is listed vertically as a list in a single column.
A list is a simpler pattern for the eye to follow, as it is a top to bottom flow. With two columns, eyes have to follow a z-pattern, which is more tiring.
5
You are trying to deal with concurrent editing, and unfortunately there isn't any easy solution for this. The common ways of dealing with it are:
Lock the record when someone starts editing it. This will prevent a second user from editing a record that is being edited and should inform them that someone else (possibly a name) is editing that record. ...
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