[Sigia-l] List order

[Stewart Dean]

At 21:24 30/07/2003 -0400, Joe Sokohl wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I posted this right when the list went down, and i really need some help 
>from y'all.
>
>Topic: How shuold a menu list be ordered? Specifically, I have 14 
>organization subgroups that will appear in a form list. Possible orderings are:
>1. Ordinal--12 subgroups are numbered 1-12.
>2. Geographic--Most groups are geographic in nature (US state names)
>3. Alphabetic.
>
>My analysis of Card, Schneiderman, and Schriver as well as papers on ACM 
>Digital Library led me to choose 3. But I'm meeting resistance from 
>long-timers in the firm, who opt for "the way we've always done it."

If the old timers understand a certain way and use it in a certain way then 
there is not point reinventing the wheel if they are the key users.

If on the other hand you have different user groups that have different 
expectations then you need to be flexible. As always, the users will often 
tell you how they want things to be.  If possible why not offer all 3? With 
electronic systems there is no need to have fixed ways of viewing 
data.  What becomes difficult is finding the right default behavior. Which 
feels the simplest?

If in doubt - ask the users. If you're not in doubt - still ask the users 
as you might be wrong.

Stewart Dean

User Experience Freelancer