Hi all, Has anyone tested "mixed values" in trees in webapps lately? We discussed this four years ago (http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=7380) and I'm wondering if anything has changed.
Picture: - A tree with selectable nodes (e.g. http://bit.ly/fEXrR) The issue: - How to indicate that some child items under a parent node are selected, but not all Options: 1) "Mixed value" square -- as seen in many desktop apps 2) Greyed out check (as seen in the example above) 3) Leave the parent node's checkbox empty regardless of whether some of its children are selected (e.g. http://bit.ly/me8Hv) Considerations: - This is a webapp so options 1) and 2) would have to be specially coded, and aren't "standard" on a webpage - I tried option 1) and in usability testing, people had no idea what it meant -- even when I had "(5 selected)" next to the mixed value node. Given 1) failed in usability testing, and 2) looks like the checkbox is disabled, I'm wondering about 3) but don't know how I feel about it. It's not fully accurate, but if my users can't understand the mixed concept, perhaps it doesn't NEED to be accurate. What it does mean though, is that if the tree is fully collapsed, some nodes could be selected and the user would never notice. Any thoughts, IxDAers? Getting frustrated over this one. (Darnit users, UNDERSTAND!) Meredith ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
