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113

answers:

2

We have an Intranet web page that displays reports based on some search criteria. The controls for the search criteria are at the top of the page and the report grid is the only content on the page. The grid will typically display more than 50-100 rows and will require scrolling. What page design is more appropriate from a UX perspective:

  • Fixed size grid with vertical scrollbar and fixed headers.

    • The advantage of this approach is that when users scroll the grid vertically, the headers stay in place and always visible making it easier to understand the content of the reports. The filter criteria are also always visible and can be changed without having to scroll back to the top of the page.
    • The disadvantage is that the size of the grid has to be fixed and depending on the size of the browser window, two vertical and two horizontal scrollbars could be displayed (the standard browser scrollbars and the grid scrollbars). That could be somewhat mitigated because we know the screen sizes of the users and we can optimize the page assuming maximized browser window.
  • Let the grid be sized based on the number of records.

    • The Advantage is that only the standard browser scrollbars would be displayed.
    • Disadvantage is that when the users scroll down, the headers and the filter criteria become invisible.

Note that we don’t want to use paging because the number of records is not high enough to require that and the users generally don’t like paging because it makes it more difficult for them to scan the results.

This might be somewhat of a subjective question, but it is very common and I think there should be a clear UX guideline on how to approach it.

A: 

Let the user control how many records they'd like to see.

madcolor
A: 

The guideline is "Whatever makes most sense for the way it's used"

  1. How are your users going to use the grid? After perusing the results of a search, will they often need to search again? or will they simply click on a result and continue into another area of the app?

  2. Is the data easily read without column headers? ie.

    John Smith | CEO | GlobalMecaCorp | 3 Stanford Way | (043) 1233 1233

    vs

    1235 | 12312 | 1233 | 12301823 | A | ADX

Without knowing the answers to these, I'd err on the side of the idea that requires the least code, then watch how your users interact with it.

Once you see how they work you'll be able to see what optimisations are going to make their lives easier.

Lives made easier equals great UX.

nailitdown