Which is the best way to display priority in a large list of items?

Question

We have a list of approximately 50 items. The item at the top takes highest priority, and the item at the bottom takes the least. These items can be re-ordered by selecting the item and clicking the down or up button at the top of the list.

The current way we have implemented this is by having a long vertical list of the items. The pro of doing it this way is that it is visually clear as to which has higher priority:

Another idea that came along was to orient them in a wrapping list, which would allow us to display most, if not all, items at one time. The con to this is that it might be less clear to the user as which which items have the higher priority:

Which is more important: seeing all items at once or knowing exactly how they rank with each other immediately?

PLEASE NOTE: Although the items are named "Item 1 - Item 48" in this example, they will have unique names that are not numeric.

Also: these are really the only options we can implement at this point. Any drag and drop type solutions unfortunately can not be used.

Answer 1

You could try providing numbers for each item, example

1) Item 1
2) Item 2
...
48)Another item

Alternately, rather than having columns in a list, have rows. Go across first, then to the next row. This is similar to how we read, so it may be more clear to the user. It may work better with numbers as well though.

Answer 2

The Netflix queue interface shows a list in priority order. Users can either drag items (not an option for you) or type a new number in a text box next to any item. There is also a "move to top" button on each row.

The advantage of this over up/down arrows at the top of the list is that the controls are right there on the row, instead of having to select and then move your mouse/visual focus to another part of the interface. Perhaps you could do something like this?

I seem to have cropped it out here accidentally, but the page has a scroll bar like any other web page where content exceeds browser window.

Answer 3

Please, pretty please, do it like this:

• Forsee an extra column named Priority
• Keep 1 item per row
• Label the column headers
• Put the up/down buttons to the right of the list, label them, make sure you can only click it if an item from the list is selected

Additionally you could foresee 2 extra buttons, move to top, move to bottom.

Is multiple selection allowed in you list? Make sure it is also supported then when clicking the up/down buttons.