There is one argument for sort which is allowing for 'browse type' functionality. Google/Gmail's approach is very search-heavy, requiring you to query for what you're looking for, and then iteratively modify the query until you find what you what.

For more 'vague' queries where the user doesn't know exactly what they're looking for, sort tends to be helpful as it lets you order items by a field such as date or sender, then browse until you see the item you want.

IE: "I sent an email to someone earlier in the week about cars". -> Sort by date, browse to that time period, then look for words like cars, which actually could have been the word 'automobile' in the subject line.

IE: "Where is that email by that guy Joe? John? .. something starting with J" -> Sort by sender, etc.

I agree that for most tasks, sort may not be critical. However, I'm a big view of manipulating/ordering/filtering my information via different views until I discover what I want.

My $.02
-a


On Jun 2, 2006, at 10:31 AM, Mimi Yin wrote:

Heh, so what I really meant by 'no sort order' was sort by Triage status, aka 'Sort by how I want to focus on my information'
:o)

On Jun 2, 2006, at 9:46 AM, Jeffrey Harris wrote:

Hi Mimi,

In the world of filters, I never sort by anything except date or date +
thread, I agree that sorting by who and stamp don't seem crucial.

The summary view will still need a sort order, so what you're saying
isn't going to save us any architecture work, it just might imply a
different interface design (which is of course the point of this list,
so that's great).

Sincerely,
Jeffrey
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list
http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list
http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Open Source Applications Foundation "Design" mailing list
http://lists.osafoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/design

Reply via email to