[Sugar-devel] [DESIGN] multi-selection in journal

[Gary Martin]

Hi Martin,

On 31 May 2011, at 05:38, Martin Abente wrote:

> Hello Amigos,
> 
> Lately I have been working on the support for multi-selection in the
> journal. This feature was originally part of Dextrose3's TODO [1], but
> during EduJAM [2], many people were interested in having it on Sugar
> mainstream, so I will give it a try ;)
> 
> I already have a functional prototype running on sugar 0.9.x (check
> video!) [3], its design was based on different ideas and proposals
> [4,5]. My current patch does the minimum required to get this working,
> avoiding any big code re-factoring or massive rewrites (for now).
> 
> Anyway, I would like to hear everyone's feedback on the current design!

First, thanks for taking this challenge on!

> Thanks in advance,
> tch
> 
> References:
> 1. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Dextrose/3/Todo
> 2. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/EduJAM/2011/Brainstorm
> 3. http://www.sugarlabs.org/~tch/journal2.mpeg

Nice movie :) some quick general questions/comments:

- When clicking "Select all" does it only select all the currently visible objects? When clicking "Select none" does it clear the tick selection from hidden objects?

- I'm not convinced changes to object details while in the multi-select mode should change the filtered selection shown. You show in the mpeg un-favouring an object in detail view and it disappearing while still being ticked for a multi-select operation, will this hidden but still ticked object be operated on? Keeping the two workflows separate might help – step one, if needed set your filter to narrow down the number of objects displayed; step two, activate multi-selection (this list is now locked in), make your checkbox selection, take action. Or perhaps any selected objects that are filtered out could simply be de-selected?

- A slight variation to this design raised a while back is to pick up on how most iPad apps now deal with multi selection lists. Rather than always showing a long line of checkbox clutter, consuming screen space, have a distinct "Edit" button in the main toolbar. Once clicked display the checkboxes next to each object ready for multi-selection, once cancelled hide/clear the checkboxes. This button could perhaps be a single toggle icon that looks like your current "Select all/none" icons, and would also provide continuity toggling between the two toolbars (i.e. the multi-select on/off button would have the same placement in each, the far left would seem a likely position). This might also avoid a tick box vs. favourite star confusion.

^^^ FWIW the above 'always show all checkboxes vs. edit mode toggle button' I seem to remember had an even split when it was last discussed – so likely no clear winner.

- Need to make sure it is very obvious how to get out of a multi-select mode. We don't want to end up with another mode confusion as in Home favourite vs. list mode.

- If Journal is in the multi-select mode, do you still get the mono action hover palette pop-up? Can you still resume an object?

I do like all the confirmation dialogues when performing operations on multiple objects. Also it's a nice touch that deleting all multi-selected objects also de-activated multi-select mode, where as the copy to action keeps the multi-select mode as is in case you want to perform extra steps on the current selection :)

Great to see multi-select moving forward at last!

Regards,
--Gary

> 4. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Designs/Journal#06
> 5. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Journal_NewUI
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