[IxDA Discuss] Best practice: hiding groups of widgets within a complex form?

[Alan Wexelblat]

The form is used in a bursty fashion.  Users will use it many times a
day for several days or a couple weeks, then not at all for some time.
 Basically, the form captures a complex requirements document that's
internally generated by the customer in unstructured text.  The
application form is an encoding of that verbal requirement into
something the system can process.  A typical customer will end up with
thousands or even tens of thousands of these captured rules.

A complete revamp of the form into a progressive or step-wise design
is not feasible, partly for political and inertia reasons and partly
because there's no global process for how this encoding happens.
Since the requirements document is written differently at each
customer site we can't impose a linear process on the capture screen.

The form is moderately complex, about 25 mixed controls that are
always visible and another 5-10 that are drawn if the user selects
certain values in the visible controls.  There are many required
fields and the form is grouped into logical relations.  One area is
"describe this thing"; another is "write the expression for this
thing"; a third is "set conditions for use of this thing.

User turnover varies by customer.  Some are extremely stable, some
change rapidly.

Hope that helps,
--Alan

On 6/14/07, Chauncey Wilson <chauncey.wilson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Alan,
>
> What is the frequency of use of this form (based on prior data or expected
> usage)?  Will it be used many times an hour, many times a day, a few times a
> week, once a month, at random intervals (like the forms occasional travelers
> have to fill out for reimbursement)? Could you give us a primary usage
> scenario without divulging any trade secrets? Do you have any required
> fields on this form or any interdependencies as Alexander mentioned)? How
> complex is the form - how many total controls? How many controls in the
> groups that  you propose? Do you have a mixture of controls or is  your form
> primarily one of text fields?  Will your users be a stable group or will
> there be a lot of turnover?  Will you open the entire form by default so
> users can see everything?  Before suggesting design possibilities, it would
> help to have a bit more background.
>
> Chauncey
>
>
>
> On 6/13/07, Alan Wexelblat <awexelblat at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm trying to figure out how to give people a way to simplify a
> > visually complex form.  This is a PC desktop application, not Web, and
> > I don't have the option to break the form apart.
> >
> > Current technology is something like an enhanced group box
> > (
> http://developer.kde.org/language-bindings/ruby/colortooltutorial/dialog3grpbox.png)
> > with a button-like target in the corner (like a + or open/close
> > chevron) that would collapse related groups of widgets, or shrink the
> > area in some way.
> >
> > I haven't seen any good examples of UIs that do this, or design
> > patterns I could look at for inspiration.  Anyone got any thoughts?
> >
> >
>


-- 
--Alan Wexelblat