I'm working on redesigning a web interface to provide the same functionality it has currently but with easier use via good UX design. Currently, here is what the design looks like:
I'm less worried about the tofu look and feel, that can come later, I want to nail the UX functionality first. The idea here in this tab is the user can select the items via a checkbox and perform the actions in the "I Want To" drop down (which opens different modal dialogs depending on the action). The 3 dot ellipsis on the right of the items in the list allow the user to perform the same actions via another drop down control, with the idea that they use the top drop down to perform the actions on multiple items, the ellipsis three dot menu for one item.
The obnoxious part of this control is that the list could contain hundreds of items, and the check box takes too much precision to check quickly. The user would select which items they would like to perform the actions on sequentially, then have to scroll up to the top of the page to select the action. This could be 5 seconds of scrolling, which I find obnoxious. I want to develop a good UX pattern to provide the same functionality in less clicks, scrolling, and frustration.
My inital idea was to provide a floating action button. The user could then * somehow * (I haven't thought of an idea yet, at minimum at least a bigger check box) select multiple items then pick what they want to do via the floating action button which is always within the bounds of the screen instead of the horrible scroll back to the top (I don't think a "scroll to top" button is a good solution for this either).
So I need some recommendations on a UX pattern or some general suggestions on how to make this process less frustrating for users. I'm a fan of material design right now, but I'm open to any suggestions, material design guides don't seem to have any paradigms for something like this.
I think the UX steps are in a good track: first select them, then set the action.
Instead of it being only a checkbox to click, the whole top part of each line could be clickable to select the item. This would make it much easier for the user, and less frustrating not being able to hit the checkbox.
Fixing the header on top would be usefull for adding a "Select/Unselect all" option and having the actions always available. Adding a searchbox to filter could be as well a good option if you are thinking of long lists. Combining the search box and the "Select all" option should help the user in their tasks.
If that is the most important action to be done in that screen, making the "What to do" button stand out a bit more would be a good idea to differenciate the primary from the secondary options for the user to do.
I see two simple things you can do to make this more usable with very little effort.
Remove the checkbox and make the entire row tappable, highlighting those selected. Each row would essentially become the checkbox's label, and the checkbox itself would be hidden from view.
Fix the header to the top of the browser window when the user scrolls down.
I need to implement a threaded view of sorts in an old VB6 app. It should look similar to this:
So, it's like a TreeView of sorts but there are buttons on the right (for each row) that could be pressed. The view does not need to collapse - it always stays in the expanded mode. The users should be able to respond to each node (via the comment button on the far right). And, of course, users should be able to scroll through the entries.
What are some of the ways I could implement this? I am open to 3rd party controls, paid or not.
VSFlexGrid has an outline mode. You can set the indent per row via the RowOutlineLevel property. It supports word wrap, images, etc within its cells/columns so you should be able to get pretty close to what you want. It also supports owner-drawn which lets you fully customize the cell painting (for example, to get those rounded corners).
I'm sure there are other controls out there as well...
I have the following set of controls.
Scenario 1:
If you select one of the first 3 radio buttons and click enter, focus will jump to the Passport Number text box. If the user selects "Other", the "Other, Please Specify" textbox is enabled and, for convenience, screen focus (the cursor is moved) to that textbox.
Scenario 2:
The "specify Other" text box is hidden until the user clicks on the Other Radio button. Upon doing so, the textbox is made visible and the cursor is placed in this textbox.
Which scenario do you feel is a better approach? Perhaps you have another variation? Please state your reasoning.
I would also appreciate it if you could make a generalized statement as to when hiding is better than disabling or vice versa, but I am also interested in this particular example.
Thanks.
Afetrthought: Perhaps, in the 2nd example, the "Please Specify" text would only appear after the user has selected the 'Other' radio button.
I find that changing the UI by hiding/showing controls can be quite jarring and confusing to the user. Go with option 1 and enable the textbox when the appropriate radio button is checked.
My initial impression is that number 1 is neater.
it allows for a clear design of the GUI (there wouldnt be inexplicable empty spaces in the input screen)
it makes the colon after the `(Please Specify)" request meaningful.
The only time I advocate hiding UI elements is when it improves the UI. If it's just 'different' rather than 'measurably better', don't do it.
Users may be put off by the fact that the "other" option seems to require that you specify something, yet the UI gives no clue that you can do that.
I would consider number 2... Hiding the text box will make it easier for the majority of people to run their eye down the page (each horizontal line creates a barrier for the eye). When someone selects 'other' a text box could fade in with the words 'please specify' in the box. The form will seem to respond to the users input.
I have a CListCtrl control that has 2 columns and any number of rows. I want the user to be able to click(or maybe double-click) a "cell" and be able edit the text therein.
What I mean is that I want to be able to click and edit any of the places where it says "TEST" by clicking on the text to make it editable.
How should I go about this? I suppose I should use a mouse click event but how would I make the cell editable?
This looks like a list control in report mode, which is different from a list box. A list box doesn't support editing contents at all. You can write code entirely on your own to get the contents of a line, copy that to an edit control, display the edit control exactly where the existing content was shown, allow the user to edit, and copy data back when/if the user hits return.
A list control allows editing of one (and only one) field. If you want to support more, you have a couple of choices. One would be about like above, creating your own edit control in the right place. The obvious alternative would be to look up one of the many grid controls. CodeProject has a number of variations.
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I'm writing an internal-tools webapp; one of the central pages in this tool has a whole bunch of related commands the user can execute by clicking one of a number of buttons on the page, like this:
toolbar http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/1928/commands.png
Ideally, all of the buttons would fit on one line. Ordinarily I'd do this by changing each widget from a button with a (sometimes long) text label to a simple, compact icon - e.g.
button labelled "Save" http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/773/saver.png
could be replaced by a familiar disk icon:
Unfortunately, I don't think I can do this for every button on this particular page. Some of the command buttons just don't have good visual analogs - "VDS List". Or, if I needed to add another button in the future for some other kind of list, I'd need two icons that both communicate "list-ness" and which list. So, I'm still considering this option, but I don't love it.
So it's come time for me to add yet another button to this section (don't you love internal tools?). There's not enough room on that single line to fit the new button. Aside from the icon solution I already mentioned, what would be a good* way to simplify/declutter/reduce or otherwise improve this UI?
*As per Jakob Nielsen's article, I'd like to think that a dropdown menu is not the solution.
Edit: I'm not looking for input about the icon idea. I'm looking for other solutions. Sorry my example disk icon was a small one; it was just an example. I'm showing a bigger one now to hopefully be more clear.
I would add a More Link Like Google does.
See the Top Bar of Google with WeB Images Map More >>
To this more >> drop down you can add logic to add button less frequently used by user or something like that.
If you read Jef (and Aza) Raskin, you'll probably realize that icons are also not a good solution – both were pretty vocal in their dislike for them (with very few notable exceptions). For a start they're even harder to hit than tiny buttons, then their symbols can be confusing, culture-dependent and misleading. We're already good at reading text, parsing and interpreting icons is often slower.
In any case, that button bar looks like it accommodates pretty much anyone and their dog who might be using that product. You might have had some specific scenarios in mind when creating it that should be easy to do and are important. Most likely not all buttons are needed at once for such a task to complete.
Another thing is that maybe not all buttons are even useful at any single state of the application. Can you maybe branch into different sets of buttons, depending on the state. That's only possible however, if each state has clearly defined what actions can be taken. If all buttons are equally pressable regardless of state this won't do anything.
Grouping commands according to related functionality might also be an option. This doesn't have to be done with menu-like idioms, you can also put them into containers with different background color or even color the buttons themselves (just keep in mind color blindness, though). Depending on how related those individual functions are this can be a good way of speeding up interaction. It might requier some training for users to know what the colors refer to but for an in-house tool that's only used by people you know (instead of by arbitrary random ones [which is a problem Microsoft faces quite prominently]) this should pose not much of a problem.
What if you use icons and text?
For the commonly understood commands - use just an icon (like the save)
For the uncommon commands use an Icon + the text.
If you put a border around the button as a whole it should tie the icons / text together nicely and show it's still a button. You could also do some hover effects.
Since you can't do a dropdown menu (or similar techniques like clicking a button to generate a secondary menu). The best I can think of is what Prescott did or showing an area of buttons that are grouped in such a way to make it easy for the user to know which section their button should be in.
I would start by changing some of the longer labels. At a minimum, "Application Loading" could be abbreviated "App Loading." What's another (shorter) way to say "Quick File Transfer"?
You could also group the buttons into tabs (i.e. make it a ribbon). That might work particularly well if different classes of users tend to use different, non-overlapping sets of buttons.
Numerous options:
Group and labeling. Any time you have more than eight commands, you should divide the menu items into semantic groups of about four to help the user scan for the command they want. Labeling the groups also helps the scan and can make the menu more compact. For example, Instead of VDS Ping and VDS List, Have a group labeled “VDS” with “Ping” and “List” menu items. You’ve one less word to fit in (two if you put the label above it’s associated menu items when using a horizontal orientation).
Pulldown menus. Nielsen is correct about avoiding the use of a dropdown menu for making commands. However, he’s clearly in favor of pulldown menus which look and behave like a menubar in a thick client app (Nielsen calls them “command” and “navigation” menus). I think you’ll find that there are several Javascript pulldown menus out there now, unlike back in 2000 when Nielsen wrote his post. You can fit 100s of commands in a menubar.
Sidebar menu. Arraying the menu items vertically and you should be able to fit 20 or more commands and you won’t have to shorten any command names to something user might not understand. If that’s not enough, consider a “menu bank” than combines the benefits of sidebar menu with the capacity of a pulldown menu.
Ribbon. If your commands fit into discrete tasks, where the user tends to stick to one task for a while, you can arrange the buttons on a tab control, with one sheet per task.
Command Overloading. Represent your data objects as selectable entities in your window and change your commands into more general operations, like Drill-down, Create, Copy, Move, Delete, and Link, that can be applied to various different classes of objects, thereby reducing your total number of commands. The user can select one or more data objects then select the desired command to act on them.
Work Area Attributes. Some of your commands may not be commands by settings or attributes. Remove them from the menu and represent them as data objects in the work area of the page (or another page, if they are rarely used) using controls like radio buttons, dropdown lists, and check boxes. This has the added benefit clearly showing the user the current setting as well as providing a means to change it.
Variants. For an internal app, you probably have formal roles and responsibilities that vary by work position. Include the user’s position in your model, and dynamically hide commands (and other controls and pages) that aren't relevant to that position.
What about a combobox and a Confirm button?
Or a simple dropdown menu?
Add a "Tools" or "Actions" menu bar, and stick rightmost 4 commands (or more) into the menu.
Would it be possible to implement a "most used" or "preferred" set of buttons (preferably for the user, but globally if necessary) and button to take you to the rest of the items if you need one of those?
You could group them (like the two 'vds' buttons) behind a single button that, when clicked pops a context menu with the individual icons.
It truly seems like what you're developing is a administration console which happens to present its UI through a web page, rather than something which I'd quantify as a web app. As such, especially given your statement that this is an internal use application, Jakob Nielson's advice regarding <select> tags being poor design need not apply.
For this particular set of assumptions, I think the better option is to imitate a system menu setup using one of the many CSS-based menuing designs possible.
Icons are terrible from a user experience stand point. A picture of a Floppy Disk doesn't un-equivocally mean SAVE. It means something to do with a Floppy Disk. A Floppy really, its 2010, SAVE on a web app means save to the server, how does a Floppy Disk even compute?
Here is an application that has had the same extremely usable interface for 10 years! And hardly any images for buttons, and it is one of the most productive applications in its category.
You know what ICONS stand for I ncomprehesible C ryptic O bfucsated N onsense S ymbol!
Also how do you internationalize an icon?