Any suggestions for finding items quickly in a long list of checkboxes?

Question

I have a list of names, each with a checkbox to indicate that they have been selected to do a job. Because the list is long I have made the list scrollable.

I've put together an example of what I mean.

There could be a few hundred names in this list so it can be difficult to find people quickly, especially if only a few names are to be selected. To quickly find people to select I've added a search/filter to show/hide names in the list but it feels a bit odd as items which are checked are then hidden if they don't match the search text. Are there any alternatives I'm overlooking?

How would people feel about scrolling to the position in the scrollable area if the item they are looking for is found?

Answer 1

I recommend you have search filter. As the user enters their search the list filters to show matches. Once they select a user that user is added to the Selected list.

Another option is to have two list, the unselected and the selected items. Use arrow buttons to move items from one list to the other.

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Answer 2

Given you have just few hundreds names and that you propably need to check one person per time, I would go for an approach that is currently quite used on the mobile world: the alphabet next to the list. I believe that even on the web the approach could work:

Basically the user will be able to select a single letter to jump straight to the section where names start with that letter. Again, you have just few hundred names and, assuming they are not all starting with 'A', this approach will quicken the search a lot.