We had this control front and center in my current project, but after discussions and brief sessions with actual users, found they didn't use it that often, and it was implemented so badly that it affected our portal performance. So I changed the way it works, moved it to the bottom of the page, and selected a larger default page size. The combination of the two improved the experience tremendously (page loads in less than five seconds where it used to take 30-60) and the larger default page size works better for most folks. Now, only the "power users" who need the whole table (or just more data) use that control, while it's no longer in the way of the main experience.
I'd say use it if you have to (or can't afford a continuous paging ajax control), but select a smart default so that people don't have to use it. Bryan Minihan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Kraemer Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 5:06 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Deciding whether to use a \"Show n items per page\" control Hi all, How do you decide whether to include a means to control how many list items to display? In an earlier thread (http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=46070), someone pointed to 37Signals' "Getting Real," in which they suggest that preferences like these are a cop-out, a little decision that one shouldn't force on the user. Jut simplify and choose a smart default. And in a recent round-up of best practices in search results (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/09/28/search-results-design-best-pract ices-and-design-patterns/), it seems to me that most of the example sites the author points to do not use this UI control. Yet the author calls the use of this control a best practice. So, how do you decide whether to include it? Do you follow a general principle (give the user more control/take away little decisions), or do you decide based on the users' needs in a given project? And if so, how do you define those needs? ________________________________________________________________ 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 ________________________________________________________________ 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
