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I have a very long table (it's supposed to be long and go beyond one screen,though number of rows may vary) and I'm thinking what is the best way to present such data. My current problem is joining pagination and table' totals. I've done it as shown on the picture but not really happy with result.

IMO it's unclear for user if totals represent totals of all pages or just one that is being viewed at the moment. And maybe I'm missing some other downsides.

What could be a better solution?

enter image description here

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  • Question... does the pagination provide meaningful division between data rows? i.e. would I know the record I'm looking for is probably on page 4 or 5? If there isn't, I would recommend considering an infinite scrolling table instead unless you have 20+ pages of records with no means to filter or sort that will bog down performance of the page when the user scrolls downward and there are 300/400 rows on the page.
    – nightning
    Apr 25, 2014 at 20:09
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    I don't think user will be looking for specific record on this page. Main use case here is looking for some anomalies in numbers. But as it seems easier to identify anomalies on graph (I've cut it from the image), I'll probably remove the table at all and keep only XLS/CSV import for those who're looking for specifics. If I'll keep the table I'll probably move pagination below the totals, keeping some distance between main table content and totals.
    – Timofey
    Apr 25, 2014 at 21:05
  • I see. Yes I agree that it'll probably make sense to have a Summary Statistics section and just have a link to say "download raw data as XLS" if it's something the user checks only when there are anomalies. Or alternative, a "show raw data" option that just display the data table. No need to show column totals on the table anymore since you have that summary above and it clearly says "raw data"
    – nightning
    Apr 29, 2014 at 19:23

6 Answers 6

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You can use a scrolling table that will allow the user to scroll and view the content of the table instead of going from page to page. Irrespective of the number of rows all the content will be available in a single view avoiding pagination. Since the view may show (say) 10 rows and the user can scroll within the table to view the rest of the rows you may not have to compromise with the aesthetics of the rest of the UI. Also when you show the total below it there wont be a scope of confusion of what it indicates (implicitly it will mean the total of the table since there are no more pages or anything for that matter).

I would also suggest to provide a search feature on the table in case the user is looking for a specific record from the table making it more usable (you may have used it but since its not in the screen you provided I just wanted to share it)

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I think that if you simply put Total row on top of the table, it would be obvious that it's all about whole data, not only the page you present.

EDIT

I mean to copy the total row, not move it to the top.

I also thought it through, and you may consider adding an information in Total cell like:

Total (1536 items)
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  • well but it seems to me that user will be searching for total row on the bottom of the page, so putting is on top making it less clear for user to detect total row on page..
    – Timofey
    Apr 19, 2014 at 22:05
  • @Timofey please look at an edit to my answer
    – cyborg86pl
    Apr 20, 2014 at 7:16
  • still doesn't look like a right solution... i'll try to think it over myself. thank you!
    – Timofey
    Apr 21, 2014 at 22:04
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There can be some different options to cover this scenario:

  • You can provide dynamic scrolling to your table. First view will show, say 20 rows. When user scroll down, the next 20 rows will be loaded and appear. The Total row will have its fixed place, at the bottom of each view. It means scrolling will be applied to all rows, except the last fixed row. You can shade the Total row a bit different than other rows to stand it out.

  • If you are not going with dynamic scrolling, the Pagination bar can be placed at the bottom of Total row, as well as above the table.. Again, Total row will have a different shade. Scrolling will work on rows above the Total row.

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While having the totals row fixed on the bottom, how about implementing infinite scrolling for the table?

Downside - Users won't be able to jump to a location.

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In addition to nuwa's answer. Maybe you can use a combination of infinite scrolling and pagination?

That way there are no downsides of having infinite scrolling since they can still jump to particular locations and share these with others.

I got this idea from: https://medium.com/design-idea/636c0ae6e3b1 I could see this working for your table as well.

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I've implemented horizontally scrolling tables for responsive layouts before. In your case it'll just be for the desktop version, but it's the same thing.

enter image description here

You can find more info about it from the original creator of this technique: David Bushell

Here's a demo (it's the 3rd one, but you have to resize your browser): Responsive tables

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