Mimi Yin wrote:
On Nov 1, 2007, at 10:29 AM, Dan Steinicke wrote:
Currently the display order of summary table rows can change
immediately after a user completes an edit on an item. I think this
is undesirable behavior. I think the table view should only re-order
when the column headers are clicked, or in response to the passage of
time.
Dan, are you speaking from a testing perspective?
No, I am speaking as a user of software. I like software behavior that
follows established conventions (sorting caused by clicking column
headers, tables not re-ordering immediately after edits), unless there
is a very clear need to operate differently. I don't see the need to
depart from convention in these cases. I fear that needlessly
departing from convention makes it harder for new users to understand
the app and will lead to lower adoption levels.
I think the idea is that most of the time, users are sorted by Triage,
so this isn't as much of an issue.
Right, so long as they are sorted by triage, one of seven possible
sorts, they are good to go. I feel that a large segment of our
potential users won't understand this and will be confused and
disappointed by the behavior. I see confusion of new users as a major
barrier to adoption.
As part of recording a test script I wanted to select each item in
the table from top to bottom and add a 'X' at the beginning of each
title. I found this operation difficult to do because regardless of
which column I sorted on (I tried Title, date, and task) at some
point the table would re-order in response to my edits. I find this
automatic re-ordering very annoying behavior and find it hard to
believe most users would want the table to behave this way.
This would work if you sorted by Triage Status, no?
Yup.
I think this also ties in to the end user confusion around the
"Triage" button. I have always thought it would be much more
intuitive to just have the triage column header button do what the
"Triage" button now does. In my understanding the main function of
the "Triage" button is to prevent row reordering when you change the
triage state. If rows only re-ordered when the headers were clicked
then it would seem we would be able to simplify this work flow as well.
I think we can make the column header do the same thing as the Triage
button.
The disadvantage of having *only* the column header as the way to
Triage is that users will want to 'Triage' often, but not reverse the
sort order often. I think we'll run into people not wanting to click
on the column header because they don't want DONE to be at the top.
I don't see this as much of a disadvantage, all they have to do is click
the header a second time to get back the sort order they want. If this
makes our app more intuitive for first time users I still think it is a
better way to go. If this is a big concern I could see changing the
triage header work by reversing the sort order _only_ if there was no
triaging to do, if there was triaging to do it would only do that.
Are there users out there who like the automatic re-ordering
in response to edits? Are there users out there who are annoyed by
the dashboard re-ordering in response to edits?
Dan _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
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