Should the input for a new item of a wishlist be at the top or the bottom of that list?

Question

I was working on an idea for a public wishlist web app that a user will be able to manage:

"New item" is an input field that gets focus by default. Right now when I enter "5th Item" and press Enter or click the green plus, the New item input cell moves down, revealing the new cell that was created. The New Item cell is thus like a "stamp" that stamps its contents and moves down. The user may later rearrange the cells to their liking.

My question is: Is it better to leave this "stamp" at the bottom of the list where it moves down when a new item is created or to put it at the top and have the list "come out of it"?

I believe the first approach would be analogous to a duck-tape dispenser while the second to an upside-down receipt printer. What's your opinion?

Answer 1

Neither seem consistent

The first big difference I see appears when the user have a list of maybe 15 items and they enter the page to add another one, I don't think it's a good idea to make them scroll to reach the New Item button.

In the other hand placing the New Item button in the top isn't very familiar, plus the input point would descend 1 place to let the New Item button "regenerate", that's not a big issue, but it's not very nice neither.

Another approach

I would choose a simpler approach, even more if each register consist only in a text field.

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Based on this approach, the problems of adding at the bottom of the list will remain if the last item of the list is "under the fold" when a new item is added, so users won't know if it was really added until they scroll to check it, which is bad so I would choose to add them on top.

Anyway, you always have the chance to add a dropdown above the table to let the user select "Newest first" / "Older First".

Answer 2

The answer to the question is based on the fact that whats more important to your users, for them their old items in the wishlist might mean more to them and they would want them at the top (and add the new ones to the end of the list).

The another approach, which I can say is more preferable in case of wishlist is, the newer the entry the more it is important for you. So I think adding the add button to the top will make a right approach.

Answer 3

And why not have the possibility to insert a line at any place the user wants ?.

If the end of the list is really bad place with bad ux for the user when he has got a huge list if you fix the field add on the top of the table while the user scroll he can reads his table and scroll in to check an existing value for example. And when he doesn't see the value he is looking for he just has to clic on the field which always stays visible upper the table.