What is the best user interface for showing hierarchy within a hierarchy in a WinForm app

Question

We have the following hierarchy:

Environment->Machines->Local contents within a machine

We are planning to show this hierarchy using an in-place navigation just like the Windows File explorer feature in Vista and beyond.

We have a set of performance counters for environments and for machines. In addition, these counters also have an innate hierarchy within them:

Category->Counters->counter instances

Should I show these counters in a separate window and some how visually show the contextual relationship between the 2 windows? Or should I jam in the counters at each level (Environment, Machines, Local contents) within the first window? Any other suggestions??

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

In general, I would prefer putting it all unto the same window or control, such as Treeview. But I think it would depend on what would be easier and more intuitive for the user.

There may be a reason, from the user's standpoint, to bring up a separate window for the category structures. If so, you could do that each time the local contents of a machine is opened.