Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!ssc-vax!leea
From: leea@ssc-vax.UUCP (Lee Carver)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Choosing a few items from a big list
Message-ID: <2921@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: 12 Oct 89 20:04:59 GMT
Reply-To: leea@ssc-vax.UUCP (Lee Carver)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Boeing Aerospace, Kent  WA
Lines: 48

Any body care to offer suggestion on the following user interface
issue?

We have a situation where users will choose a few items from a very
large list.  Typically, only one; occaisonally five or ten from a
list a several hundred candidates.

This isn't our application, but consider parts ordering.  A store
has several hundred items listed in a on-line database; each
customer order is a few items from the master list.  (Our
application is requirements allocation:  Each piece of software
satisfies a small number of the 1000's of requirements).

This is to be done with X-toolkit style graphics, so windows, menus,
toggle boxes and all the other elements of a graphical user
interface are available.

The best presentation we have found uses multiple windows:  one window
with the current set of selections, and one window with a menu of
all possible selections.  A user is able to see the items already
selected, and can "easily" find new entries.  Selected items in the
set of current choice allows them to be deleted, selecting items
from the menu of choices adds them to the current set.

By comparsion, when a single item is chosen from a large list, you
can have a scrolling menu with the selected item high-lighted.  Or,
with multiple selections from a small list, you can have a fix menu
with high-lights or check-boxes.

There seem to be two problems that arise in the "few-of-many"
selection problem.  First, a user can forget what has been selected.
In very large menus, no selected item may be visible on the screen.
Second, a user should be able to quickly access all possible
choices.  Scrolling menus seem an adequate solution here, but fail
on the "forget" problem.

One question is whether both windows up at the same time is
reasonable.  That consumes a lot of real-estate, even on a 19"
workstation screen.  But if they are not both visible, what is the
"optimal" way to notify the user that more choices are possible?
Maybe its just a hard problem.

The other ("obvious" :-) question is:  "Are there other, or proven,
presentation styles for this problem?"  Surely other people have
addressed this issue, even if none of our style guides give much
guidance (Apple, Microsoft, DECwindows, SPC, Motif).

TIA.  I'll collect mail responses for mass-publication.