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Sort Resources UI

(Kathy Moore, BU SMG)

July 6, 2006
Here are the two newest mockups, created after today's meeting. We agreed that

  • A "sort checked" button fit poorly with the univeral actions at the top of the page, because it isn't a universal action
  • The same button fit poorly with the "Operate on Checked" buttons because the others all permit you to check multiple items.

The button has been added as an action button next each listed folder. This does seem logical, but it adds to the already serious crowding on the page, and to counter this we've called it "sort," which already has a slightly different meaning in this tool. The whole listing is screaming for a redesign. (Craig Counterman pointed us to a similar "Materials" tool in MIT's Stellar, and that does illustrate a much cleaner listing.)

Here's the initial Resources listing, with the "sort" button added.

Here's the reordering interface,

  • replicating the previous layout
  • showing only the checked folder
  • offering both both numbers and arrows for sorting purposes.

Re-order Button added to Resource Listing:
The button links to a separate page. It seems unwieldly to apply the technique shown next to a complicated nested hierarchy in one pass.

This doesn't seem like a very good place for the button, but I don't have a better idea so far.

Numerical reordering at the first level of nesting:
(Please excuse the use of multiple versions and skins here.)

Reordering at the second level of nesting:
What seems to me most complicated about this utility and interface is the logic of how much the user can re-sort at one pass.

And what do we call this? Sorting? Re-ordering?

Alternate mechanism, with arrows; from My Worksite > Preferences > Customize Tabs
I'm still working on how to make it clear to the user which section of Resources is available for sorting at this pass. Maybe we can show the whole directory structure here. More to come.

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Following Jim's idea of allowing multiple sorts in a single pass:

Leads to this:

If we don't include the hidden/visible box, the selection box can be much wider than it's shown here.

There are a number of naming issues. "Re-order checked folders" is a pretty wordy button, and it really should be "Reorder contents of checked folders." Are we going with "visible/hidden" or "available/unavailable?" "Sort," "Re-order," or something else. (Organize?)

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Starting from the beginning again, with 2.2 screens and allowing only one folder to be sorted at one pass, we could have this:

Or this, which follows Diane's suggestion for treating "Re-order" as an option link/button. (And I like "upload/download help.")

and leads to something like this:

This shows both a numbering scheme and the re-order arrows. Is it do-able? It will only work well if the arrows can appear dynamically next to the folder that's been selected.

Or should the screen show a view like this of ONLY the folder that's been selected, with breadcrumbs above indicating its path?

And how many would still rather see a cleaned-up, beefed-up version of the arrow interface that mimics the site tab reordering?

Here are some of the things we need to decide:

  • What do we call this? Re-order? Re-sort? Organize?
  • Arrows or numbering? Both?
  • Toggle on main Resources view page?
  • Multiple folder sort?
  • Where is the button? What is it called?
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