unity-design team mailing list archive
-
unity-design team
-
Mailing list archive
-
Message #10307
Re: Let's talk about sorting arrows
On 02/21/2014 11:08 AM, Sam Hulick wrote:
I don't think A-Z is guesswork. Other operating systems and several apps
have already laid out the fact that an arrow pointing up is ascending
order, an arrow pointing down is descending order.
The fact that you talk about the indicators as arrows already
demonstrates part of the problem. An arrow shows direction, but how does
it relate to the reading/writing direction implied by the list, and what
comes first? Small or large, newer or older?
The other interpretation of the indicators is that of triangles, with a
tip that stands for the start of the sorting alphabet and for small.
Even if you start from the terms ascending and descending, it's not
obvious what that means for dates (time-since-then vs numerical value).
I think this is somewhat representative of what an incredible strong
consensus ;) can be found about the issue:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/338166/which-direction-should-the-arrows-point-in-a-sorted-table
As little as it might be worth, my personal experience of over 20 years
of often intensive computer use: In the heat of the moment, I still
can't remember how triangles or arrows relate to sorting order and
always scan the list to see what it is, right now.
--
Thorsten Wilms
thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/
Follow ups
References