Question about UI design

[Brian Richards]

Just looking for some feedback about a particular UI design paradigm and
maybe some examples.

Say you have an application that looks a lot like Windows Explorer (file
system not the browser). On the left is a tree of objects. On the right is a
pane that show properties, contents etc of the object. Now imagine that in
the tree where your folders are the files inside of them also have their own
nodes. Does it make sense that if you have a folder selected in the tree,
and on the right pane you select a file or group of files to decorate the
tree to give feedback on your selection? In general I'm of the mind set that
navigation in that fashion works better and is more intuitive if it's purely
left to right. Selections in the right pane don't need to be (in fact
shouldn't be) highlighted in the tree. Do others here buy into that
philosophy. Are there any applications/tools you can think of that don't
work that way. That do in fact decorate a tree for more than just a single
or multiple selection?

Thanks for your feedback

Brian

 

[Andrew Faust]

Let me try and reiterate what you just asked so I can make sure I have it
clear what you mean. You have a file system browser style application.
There is a tree view on the left that displays directories and files. When
you select a directory it will show all the objects in that directory in
the right pane.

What you want to know is if you should have any items selected in the right
pane also show up as selected in the tree view. Is that correct?

My stand is that you should not have selections in the right pane affect
selections in the tree. This would make it most closely match the
functionality of Windows Explorer. You'll notice in explorer that if you
select a folder in the tree. Then select several sub folders from the
listing on the right, those folders do not get highlighted in the tree. By
keeping it similar to the functionality of Explorer it will be more
intuitive to your users.

 

[Brian Richards]

That sums it up pretty well and I share you're feeling. The design proposal
is coming from someone else so I'm just trying not to feel closeminded about
the proposal, and I wish I could find existing examples that do tree
highlighting so that I could make an argument about why it's not any better
or buy into the design.

Thanks

-Brian

Let me try and reiterate what you just asked so I can make sure I have it
clear what you mean. You have a file system browser style application.
There is a tree view on the left that displays directories and files. When
you select a directory it will show all the objects in that directory in
the right pane.

What you want to know is if you should have any items selected in the
right pane also show up as selected in the tree view. Is that correct?

My stand is that you should not have selections in the right pane affect
selections in the tree. This would make it most closely match the
functionality of Windows Explorer. You'll notice in explorer that if you
select a folder in the tree. Then select several sub folders from the
listing on the right, those folders do not get highlighted in the tree. By
keeping it similar to the functionality of Explorer it will be more
intuitive to your users.

--
Andrew Faust
andrew[at]andrewfaust.com
http://www.andrewfaust.com

Just looking for some feedback about a particular UI design paradigm and
maybe some examples.

Say you have an application that looks a lot like Windows Explorer (file
system not the browser). On the left is a tree of objects. On the right
is a pane that show properties, contents etc of the object. Now imagine
that in the tree where your folders are the files inside of them also
have their own nodes. Does it make sense that if you have a folder
selected in the tree, and on the right pane you select a file or group of
files to decorate the tree to give feedback on your selection? In general
I'm of the mind set that navigation in that fashion works better and is
more intuitive if it's purely left to right. Selections in the right pane
don't need to be (in fact shouldn't be) highlighted in the tree. Do
others here buy into that philosophy. Are there any applications/tools
you can think of that don't work that way. That do in fact decorate a
tree for more than just a single or multiple selection?

Thanks for your feedback

Brian

 

[Marc Greiner]

Hi Brian,

I would do the file/folder selection in the tree directly, not in the right panel.
I would not show the files in the right panel if they are already displayed in the tree, thus I would not really need to answer your first question...

Regards,

Marc Greiner

 

[Brian Richards]

The objects in the tree aren't files and folders. I was just using that to
get a better picture of the UI I was talking about.

-Brian

 

[Marc Greiner]

Hi Brian,

To answer your initial question about a typical Windows File Explorer, there is no way to visually synchronize the right pane selection with the left pane tree :
- The left pane tree shows the selected folder. One folder only can be selected at a time. The right pane shows the content of this selected folder.
- In the right pane, the user selects files and / or child-folders.
If I understood well, you were asking whether the left tree should visually show the right pane selected folders.
This is not possible, unless you would then find a special way of visually discriminating the selected folder whose content is displayed in the right pane from the selected folders in the right pane (sorry for the long sentence...).

MS designed the Window File Explorer properly. They have GUI experts, who know what selected, focused, shift, ctrl, tab, alt, etc. means and they designed it the way it is now.

I haven't seen an Apple Mac file explorer, it is certainly done better, but I doubt that Apple introduced something similar to what some of your collegues are wanting (selection synchronisation).

What I have seen in some alternative file explorers is a tree showing both folders and files. This brings more functionality, although is harder to master for regular users.

Imagine the following situation:

The user needs to select either folders, files or both, from several freely selectable folders.
The only way to achieve this is by enabling the user to select objects in the tree, not in the right pane. It is more difficult to do for an average user, because trees are harder to manage for them, so that's probably why the windows file explorer does not allow selection in the tree (there might be other reasons, but this is probably the main one).

I guess, it is a design choice that depends on the computer knowledge of the users...

Regards,

Marc