How to arrange columns in a table appropriately?

Question

We are re-designing our dashboard. Currently, all table lists will start with column 1.'ID' then 2.'Name'.

The issue is, all users have a name but not all users have Reference ID, especially when ID is not a compulsory field when registering the form.

I believe it is better for the first column to have a compulsory data, which will help users scan the list better.

I came up with two solutions:

1. Make ID field compulsory when user register so every user will have this value.

• But we have loyal users that use the old interface for many years where 'ID' is not a compulsory field so a lot of their data do not have the value 'ID'.

2. Let the 'Name' column be the first column and 'ID', second. But that change would affect all the tables in the platform.

Example 1

Your guidance and suggestion will be a great help for me in refining the solution. Thank you

Answer 1

The first column should be a primary column by which the user can scan down the list of items in the table.

Typically a table will be sorted and that could be by any of the columns but by default would typically be the first column - commonly a date or a name or an id that's meaningful to the user.

The question here is what criteria are being used to sort the table in a way for the user to scan easily through an ordered list. It looks like you show them in name order (but that might just be in your examples), and clearly it's not ordered by id because not all rows have an id! That would suggest that the name column (as the default ordering column) should come first? And if that affects all tables, well doesn't that mean that improvements in usability are propagated everywhere? i.e. a bonus, not an issue to worry about? Or are there other constraints not mentioned in the question?

Answer 2

I like Roger's answer quite a bit. But at first glance on your screenshots, moving the ID to the second column just seems a little odd to me.

I would recommend keeping the ID field first, but when it's empty, put something in there. This could be a horizontal line or perhaps an italicized word saying undefined or missing. Making it closer to a grey color would help emphasize it not being there.

I think that would help the empty fields not be quite as jarring on a quick scan, but still easy to see when it's missing, particularly when a user may be trying to quickly skim through the list.

Answer 3

I think a little bit of information about the use case would help us give you a more precise answer, however this is what I think from seeing this:

If for some reason you need the ID to be in the first column, I think the simplest way would be to create an ID automatically for those users who don't have it. It is not clear how some users create it, since in your example they follow a pattern. Maybe they can create IDs freely. That, I don't know. However, it seems that the ID is not very important as there are users who have it and users who do not. So creating a random one shouldn't be a problem, they won't use it anyway.

Now the question is: do you need to see the ID? You mention visual scanning, and you're right, having something in that field would help. But how could anyone make use of that identification? What is the reason for this? How will it help users to see this field?

I think in your current situation, putting the name first (as mentioned by Roger Atrill) would be better. But unless you have a real need for id to be first, I'd say putting (last) name first would be the best option in any situation.