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I am not really sure if this is the correct place to ask this question, but please feel free to move it around or close it if its off topic.

Said that, my question is:

On a website that has categories and subcategories, the user is able to browse from category to subcategory and in the end receives the items that belong to that specific subcategory.

All items in this subcategory have the same "weight" as there are no "promo" entries that should appear on top etc.

The basic question is, what would the best way to sort them so that there is some consistency but also not have more focus on specific items.

If sorting by id you will have the oldest entries either first or last, which is also a bit unfair.

Those listings also have "views" but they are not increased when displayed in the subcategory list but only if a user decides to actually open one of the listings. The list is also paginated.

So to sum it up, my question is, How to sort them to make the most out of it? Per date created, per title, per views? What in your opinion would be the best way?

PS: lets say option to sort by specific way is available, the question is regarding only the initial sort.

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Sort items in an order that fits the experience you want the user to have:

  • If you want to make the user see first the most "interesting" items then make such sorting
  • If you want the user to see the latest items then sort by date
  • If you want the user to see the items with the latest activity...

You say all the items have the same weight. Then if you don't have any preference you might want to make things easy to the user, so an option could be to sort in an easy way to scan the list, like in alphabetical order.

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  • Also consider letting the user sort in different ways. – Alvaro Feb 7 '17 at 11:50
  • Maybe i was not clear, the "items" are basically clients, so i would like to give them some kind of equal treatment. Alphabetical would be a solution to be honest but the close to Z items would probably never be reached... Sorting methods are there for visitor. concern is only about initial appearance – Jim Feb 7 '17 at 12:30
  • @DimitriosBadanis-Kapirnas This reminds me of the way credits at the end of films are handled. Some do it in order of importance, some in order of appearance. Maybe there is a solution in that direction. – Alvaro Feb 7 '17 at 12:32

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