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Posted on January 20, 2007 By Steven NovotnySo when we were evaluating what software is currently out there and being used we talked to a lot of people. One of the main complaints from the staff was (besides "ITS SLOW!") was "too many clicks". So how do you improve something that is a integral part of computing in general? We took a look at what was going on... it was pretty obvious... drop downs. Sure, they are great for programmers, the user can't enter bad data in that field. After all, we control the options! Standard HTML drop down are sooo 1995 though. I mean really... it doesn't even look pretty:
In the drop down above, I had to click the arrow, now I have the options, which I may need to scroll through. What would happen if I am looking for a user in an organization of 40,000+ registered users? It would be a mess!
So how can we make it better? What would happen if the drop down was SMART? Smart... like reading minds smart... Here is what we came up with:
So how does that work? Well it's pretty simple, as I type a character it starts narrowing down the list in real-time. I used the tab key to get to the field, I type a few characters, use the arrow keys to select which person, and hit enter on the person I want to select. Done. No need to touch the mouse!
I also sorted the list VERY fast, so I don't have to scroll down to the appropriate letter. It searches for both first AND last name. Imagine someone telling you their last name over the phone "N-O-V", by that time you have narrowed the users from 40,000 to 20!
If you look close you also notice the option to "add person", thats right, it can't find it, add it! Let's see your dropdown v1.0 do that ;)
