One possibility would be to alert the user to the existence of sublevels
via a direct speech message, without changing focus in the UI, e.g., by
speaking the string "Has sublevels."
On 3/31/2013 2:41 AM, David wrote:
Rick,
I am tending more and more, to think the same line as you. A set of
listboxes could be a solution. One thing that I am stuck on if we look
at a set of listboxes, is this.
Let's say you pick Shirt. Shirt might, or might not, have a sub-level,
for color picks. And, if it has a color sub-level, you tab there, and
make a choice of Blue. Again, Blue could happen to have a sublevel
that would give the shades, or nuances, of Blue.
My challenge here, is how to let the user know, if there is a sublevel
or not. In a treeview, you would right away hear it, since the speech
would tell you that a branch of the tree is collapsed or expanded, if
there is a sublevel, but not so if there is no sublevels. At least,
that is my impression.
I am all for setting up five listboxes, since that is how many
sublevels can be had at the most, in this project. And, to have a
textbox at the bottom of the screen, adding up all the selections,
will neither be a problem. After all, listboxes might just end up
crimping my code a bit. But as I said, the big challenge I see, is to
let the user know, when a sublevel is available and when it's not.
Otherwise, the user would have to make his choice in the first
listbox, then tab through all the four other listboxes, to see if
there would happen to be sub-choices to be made. That's an aweful lot
of tabbing, ain't it?
So, if anyone has a suggestion, as to how you would have liked to be
informed of possible sublevels, whenever you make a choice in a
listbox - Well, I am all ears. Main thing is, to have a layout and
construction, that will make the most smooth user experience.
OK, I see one way to do it, and that is as follows:
The user makes his selection on Pants.
Pants have a sublevel, so the cursor is automatically moved to the
next listbox.
The user here makes a choice of Red, and since red has a sublevel of
shades, the cursor is automatically moved to the next listbox.
This approach, would ensure that the user always would know, when
there is a sublevel, and when there is not. Yet, it has one drawback.
The user could want, only to select a shirt, and not bother about the
colors. Or, he might select Green, but don't want to make a choice of
the shade of green. Now, if the cursor is automatically moved to the
next listbox upon any selection that happens to have a sublevel, my
big concern is, if this will cause more furstration than help - since
the user now will have to Shift-Tab back to the prior listbox, to omit
the sub-choice. Hope this all made some sense. And I am all ears to
any feedback, as I don't want to start out with a complex coding, only
to find that another dialog approach would have served the user's
interest the better.
OK, my example here is for cloth and color combinations. Yet, the
principal part of this whole matter, could easily be applied into a
number of settings. Imagine for instance, that we would have changed
the project to hold computers and printers, and where the user would
have the chance of picking memory size and CPU speed, and depending on
his choices of either, new sub-choices would come up if there is any
available. Or, imagine the project moved into a drug-store like
setting. In the main level, you pick a medicine, this medicine could
happen to only come in one size and strength, so no sub-choices are
available. Yet, the medicine also might come in differently sized
packaging, so then there would be a sub-choice to be made. And,
thirdly, the medicine selected, comes in 50, 100 or 360 count
packaging, but it comes with different choices of strength for the
different packages.
As you can see, the principal of this project, might well enough be
applied with numerous other kinds of similar projects. And so I hoped,
that some user feedback, along with a suggestion or two from
well-experienced developers, could point me to a most smoothly handled
dialog. I have noticed and saved the feedback so far given, and thank
you all who has contributed. Still, I am considering several solutions
round the bush, so keep giving me what feedback you want.
----- Original Message -----
*From:* RicksPlace <mailto:[email protected]>
*To:* [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
*Sent:* Sunday, March 31, 2013 3:25 AM
*Subject:* Re: Suggestion needed, is a Treeview the right thing?
Hi Again David:
I just saw a blurb in one of the posts about cloth as well as item
and colors and the fact that there would be allot of selections.
You might not want to have check boxes for everything since that
would be a whole lot of checking and navigation for the client.
If you intend on having Items and cloth and then colors for
each type of cloth then perhaps a Master / Detail layout with 3
list boxes.
This way the user:
mouse click Shirt, mouse click silk, mouse click Navy Blue and
mouse click save choice button and done with that selection
User sees the selection added to a review TextBox or ListBox upon
clicking the save button.
Repeat until done then click the Done button or hot key to process
the selections.
This would seem the cleanest layout for a user I can think off
the top of my head.
That many choices with a ton of checkboxes, even layed out in a
tree view, would be more painful to muck with and reviewing
selections would involve opening and closing and trying to go
through all the various branches and sub branches to review what
was selected.
Rick USA
