how to design multiple lookups

Question

• The user of an application wants to assign a task to a programmer.
• The "Edit Task" form is presented to the User.
• A popup (actually an absolutely positioned div) window comes up with all the programmers to choose from.
• The programmer is not there so the user asks for a "new programmer" screen. The popup is replaced with a "New programmer" form.
• The user fill the data, and comes to "Works at" field.
• A (2nd or 3d) popup comes to the stack with all the "Places" to choose from.

This can go ad infinitum.

How do you design your applications, to avoid the infinite stack of lookup/Entry forms?

Answer 1

If all the information is required, and none of it is in the system, I don't see how you can avoid having that many dialogs, really.

You can design the UI so it's not to intrusive, of course - try to make the transition between "pick a place" and "new place" as smooth and seamless as possible. In particular, I'd try to avoid it making the first dialog "go away" as such - perhaps just make it extend the existing one, collapsing the existing choices.

It sounds like you've got an appropriately logical division between "who" and "where" though, which I like - I hate entering completely disparate pieces of information on the same form, even if cuts down the total number of forms displayed.

Answer 2

Try not to lose the scope and the target of the screen. For example, in the "Programmer" screen, you need at least to add the basic details of the new programmer item. The user shouldn't add all the details. If the user wants to add more details, he should add it later from the related "Add Programmer" screen.

Check GMail when you create a new filter and you need to add a new label for example.

Answer 3

Alternatively to creating a (recursive) stack, you could make it a sequential queue of information that still needs to be entered (similar to a wizard). I.e. where you select the programmer, an item would say "(new - will ask for details later)". If it's going to be a wizard, it should have forth-and-back buttons everywhere.