Hot answers tagged lists
13
The trivial, most general answer is that sorting by last name makes sense when users are matching based on last names and sorting by first name makes sense when users are matching based on first names. Of course, this gets you absolutely nowhere because the hard part is figuring out which is likely to be the case!
It's not possible to do this ...
11
There is a significant body of work in the field of neuroscience which suggests that the human brain is highly adapted to the process of recognizing faces. In fact, the activity is so specialized, it's suspected that the brain has a region, the fusiform face area, devoted solely to that task.
A classic work on the subject is Face-Specific Processing in the ...
9
It all comes down to how often the user will need to use delete function.
If it's very often, maybe consider adding a button to each list item.
If it's less often you should consider adding it to the items contextual menu (the long press menu). This is standard practice for most things.
I'm guessing when the user presses an item they will be taken to an ...
9
When the description has a hashtag, automatically add a corresponding number of tag buttons to the right of the row. Those will take the user to the results of the search query for "#Lunch" or "#clients" for example.
As soon as the user adds/removes the hashtag to or from the description, the tag button gets added to or removed from the right hand side.
...
8
You have lots of questions here; this answer will include my suggestions for some of them.
Add item should be an action (in the action bar) on the list.
Edit, Delete, Attach Multimedia, and Break down item seem like they should be actions on the item itself, therefore should be shown as actions on the item detail screen.
Long-pressing the item in the ...
8
Looking at the convention you should have the most popular option on top. The user is used to scanning a list this way, from top to bottom, no matter how the list came to be.
Taken from Google Chrome:
Collapsed
Expanded
The upper alternative is Open, which would be the most utilized in this case.
8
This is always tricky, but I think you could implement a list view as in StackExchange User Reputation League. Even if an item isn't added by a user per see, it could be used in your case as well. Add the newly added item to the top of the list keeping the sorting/filtering options intact. But make clear that this is not a part of the filter/sort by changing ...
7
Vertical lists are much easier to scan than horizontal lists, because all items are aligned to the same line, so when you're looking for an item, you don't need to read the entire word - you can quickly scan the first letters and get directly to the item you need. See how much less time it takes you to locate items beginning with P on Craigslist (within a ...
7
Does the application have a general undo function?
If no: why would you like to have an "undo selection" possibility? It does not make sense to have an undo option for a selection while at the same time you would not have an undo for things that are in fact irreversible, like for instance the actual firing of the employees itself. I admit that having to ...
7
Showing the actions only on hover is the way that 37Signals do it in many of their products, and so far I haven't seen any problems with it, other than it not being usable on touch devices. That is a big downside if your customers are likely to be using touch devices. With the prevalence of iPads, this is becoming a bigger concern.
Another possible method ...
6
The last thing you want when you have a lot of tables/lists of records is to make the data less readable by having more noise and clutter from permanent buttons, links or drop down arrows, so I favour the hover approach in this instance.
Change the cursor on hover, to aid visual feedback. Align edited text with cell content where relevant so that it doesn't ...
6
Filters are the obvious answer, which those apps appear to be doing with "Film, Interactive and Music".
My first thought on how to improve it would be to borrow the UI from my iPhone's contacts list, adapted for this instance.
Basically, use a 24 hour list on the right that would quick jump you to event at any of the given times.
download bmml ...
6
If at all possible, have a profile pictures and names together. Profile pictures and names serve fairly different purposes, but they are most useful when used together.
Lets say I know someone's name from emailing them, but not what they look like. If there is a meeting, and I want to be able to recognise them, I need to see a face next to a name.
If I ...
6
A few thoughts. To tell the user that each cell is expandable you could use the standardised triangle that turns downwards after click. Further, you can enhance the feeling of "clickability" by changing cursor and add a hover effect (change the appearance of the hovered cell).
Your idea to only use colors to indicate states (like green for OK) might be a ...
5
Well, expanding panes with window resizing is so routine on desktop apps it's almost a given. The Windows 7 UX Guidelines say:
Of course, the reason users resize a window is to take advanced of the
additional screen space, so the content should expand accordingly by
giving more space to the UI elements that need it. Windows with
dynamic content, ...
5
B is best for most cases. It allows users the most flexibility and lets them keep desired data from one class (Person, Friends, Hobbies) in view while scanning through another via scrolling. B also avoids having to page if the list is long, which adds complexity and other disadvantages.
Solution A makes the top “principal” content (the one with First Name, ...
5
The interaction for deleting a list item needs to be complex enough to prevent accidents, yet not so difficult that it is a strain to delete multiple items.
For Android 3.x and 4.x, there is a recommendation by Google to use the "contextual action bar", whereby when an item is selected, you can add a delete icon to the action bar. See: ...
5
Very comprehensive question!
A few thoughts:
Some of your (valid) observations depend on the number of friends / hobbies. Have you calculated an average of these numbers based on current data (if any)?
Consider running an A/B/C testing with different amounts of data. You may find that neither of the strategies make a difference ... or that you have missed ...
5
I would argue that it's a bad idea, although an interesting novel one.
Having the view port bigger only when scrolling doesn't make sense, as the time when you really need space is when reading it - i.e. not scrolling. Additionally, having options appear and then reappear through a secondary action is likely to be confusing and/or distracting.
One ...
5
The pattern you are suggesting is similar to the one used in Google Now, which I think is great in terms of taking into account your motion instead of just fading out the controls. I would suggest you do the same.
The basic idea is this: at first, when you present the screen, your search box and other controls are fixed at the at the top, like so:
When ...
5
I don't see a big difference in difficulty of implementation between the two models you describe but this ins't an implementation discussion.
Only people with much more information about the project can determine whether the extra cost of implementation to achieve greater usability will pay off. My initial reaction (and that of most people here I think) ...
5
The human brain and a computer algorithm work quite differently.
Your assumption that it should be easier to start in the middle of a list is wrong.
In those cases you would first need to figure out what the middle point of your list was. Then you would need to figure out whether the item you are searching for would be above or below this middle point. ...
5
And if it has maximum of 30 items and all of them are visible why you just not place an action at the end of the list and add an ability to quickly reorder the list?
So, position of the new item will be obvious. And you can keep the selection untouched in this case.
5
You could also use a list builder. (Take a look at "Designing Interfaces" by Jenifer Tidwell ad the UX Guidelines from Microsoft).
Someone created a live demo too...
You can add filters, search and groups to the list on the left, and thus make is easier to "select all" items from a certain group or search result...
5
Vertical lists are better because they are easier to scan. If you draw a line from 1 -> 2 -> 3 in your examples, you will see how much work the eye has to zig-zag through your second example.
See this related question about alphabetical lists and the top answer for more discussion.
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
Think of the question another way. If you were editing an text document, and you were on the 3rd page, when you decided to delete a word. Would you want the program to take you back to the first page, or let you continue from where you are?
The answer is clearly that you would want to continue from where you are, and the same thing applies to list - which ...
5
You could initially just have the user select from the list of main checkboxes. Once they've chosen the boxes, they can press select to go to a list that contains the sub-topics.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
and then once the user finishes selecting the main topics....
download bmml source
This ...
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