Website Database Layout Design: Logical, Instinctive or Visual????

[yandoo]

Hi,

 

I was hoping for a little advice with regards to the lay out of my website database. Bit silly really but here is my dilema.......

 

 

On a page i have created there are a number of ways i can view database records E.G.

 

View Clients By:

 

Department

Name

Username

 

It is logical order (a,b,c.etc)

 

The thing is i feel it would look visually nicer this way..

 

View Clients By:

 

Name

Username

Department

 

..which is  based upon the shortest length from top to bottom, bottom bing longest.

 

But then of course there is the most instinctive way (what user will would use the most. Human Computer Interaction)

 

View Clients By:

 

Name

Department

Username

 

 

Which way is should i go here, whats the defacto??????

 

Thanks

 

Tom

[chigley]

I'd go with:

 

Name

Username

Department

 

[pocobueno1388]

I'd go with:

 

Name

Username

Department

 

 

I agree =] haha

[cmgmyr]

why don't you just output the 3 of them randomly and spice it up a little?

[yandoo]

ok....so you's feel that going for the most visually pleasing way is best in most cases?

 

Thanks

[pocobueno1388]

Well, you have only three fields you are trying to sort...so I would definitely go for the visual appealing option. If it were like 8 fields, then you would probably want to go in the order that they come most useful in and what fields the users would use first. With only three options, they are going to see all of them right off the bat, so might as well make it look better =] Thats just my 2 cents on it though.

[dj-kenpo]

why not give the option of how you want it sorted... it's not hard, php is there for just that reason. make a simple if statment, 3 different sort by endings for your query, and execute.

 

let the user decide, there will be times where you would want to sort by department if you're trying to find someone in a specific department but don't want to scroll the entire list of names

[radar]

I agree with dj-kenpo -- make it an option on how to sort -- because its just dang good programming when you do it... 

[pocobueno1388]

why not give the option of how you want it sorted... it's not hard, php is there for just that reason. make a simple if statment, 3 different sort by endings for your query, and execute.

 

let the user decide, there will be times where you would want to sort by department if you're trying to find someone in a specific department but don't want to scroll the entire list of names

 

I think you guys read the question wrong. They already have all three choices the user can "choose" to sort the results by, they were just simply asking which order to put the form in.

 

If I read the question wrong, then I would totally agree with you guys, they need to make it so you can sort it by all three ways.

[yandoo]

hi,

 

Yes im already created the records and how they can be view...this is purely just for layout and visualy purposes.

 

in my case there are only 3 type of way to view the data so it doesnt matter as much - preferably the most viaually pleasing way would be best...but like somebody said what if there werre hundreds of different ways to view the records, surely in this case you would need to list these views logically (a,b,c) to increase the lookup time of the right view!!!!

 

But where do we drawn the line here?

 

thanks

[taith]

if it were me... i'd just set up some statistic handeling for a week... and put them in order of which one was used more often... lol

 

from experience... i'd have to agree

 

name

username

department

[insightstyle]

Name

Username

Department