[Sigia-l] Arrows and Sort Order

[Matthew Rehkopf]

Timely enough, I just completed low-fidelity prototype
testing with this interaction and found that users
noticed and understood a sort option when it was in a
pull down labeled "sort by" rather than arrows next to
column headers. Amazon uses a pull down of sort items
as the mechanism for this type of interaction. Ebay
uses both a list of sort options and the column name
as a link to sort (no arrows).

However, as mentioned here already, the mechanism is
based on the interaction and the data set. The best
way to answer your question is to mock up some pages
and put your users in front of them. Try multiple
mechanisms for this interaction and see which one
users like best. This is really the only accurate way
to find what works best for your users.

Matt

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com