[IxDA Discuss] Boolean AND & OR in a graphical user interface

[Katie Albers]

I've had success solving this problem when I stop thinking about it 
in mathematical terms. I use the paradigm of two columns with the 
options in single-select lists and put "Both" and "Either" above 
those lists.  So it ends up looking sort of like this:

Search for  documents with

      [ ] both    [  ] either

    Term A          Term A
    Term B          Term B
    Term C          Term C
    Term D          Term D

Depending on your application, some variation on the "Both"/"Either" 
terminology may go far in helping you solve this.

Katie

At 6:35 PM +0100 2/9/08, Pietro Bassi wrote:
>Hi everybody,
>let me introduce myself: I'm studying Interaction Design in Rome, and
>I've been a lurker of this list for about a year.
>
>My question is: what's the best (most intuitive and effective) way to
>represent Boolean AND and OR operators in a GUI,  in your opinion?
>
>Some background information: the user is not familiar with Boolean
>logic, and he needs to choose from a closed set of about 10 different
>options, combining those options with AND and OR logical operators.
>
>Any examples or ideas?
>
>I hope my question doesn't sound too silly. Thanks in advance for your help.
>
>Cheers,
>Pietro


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==============
Katie Albers
User Experience Consulting & Project Management
katie at firstthought.com
310 356 6193