Review and brainstorm about Filter, Sort and Searchoptions

[patrickakk]

Goal of this issue

Explain about which part of the user interface we're talking, maybe also to people who don't know the application very well. As well it could be a place to: collect feedback, remarks about things that don't work as expected or preferred, suggest improvements or brainstorm about new idea's for this specific part of the user interface.

There might be some redundancy with other issues (slightly) related to this, but we could give it a try?

I'll start by describing the parts and giving my opinion about it in multiple comments below.
(For now I've added this issue to the November milestone. That it targeted at the review, not at the implementation.)

[patrickakk]

Overview of the top part of the user interface

Can be found here: https://dhcr.clarin-dariah.eu/

[patrickakk]

Sort button

Sort popup window

[patrickakk]

Sort functionality

There can be sorted on:

• Course name
• Country
• University (Institution name)
• Education type

By default the list is also sorted: The latest updated course on top. So that will contain a mix of new added and updated courses, with the most recent on top. This is only briefly explained after clicking the sort button.

Disadvantages/remarks to sort functionality - Patrick's opinion

• Not recognizable: In many applications/websites the possibility to sort data is represented by an element that looks like a drop down box.
• Needs to click multiple times and open a separate popup window, which could be confusing.
• Default sort option difficult to restore. (need to disable al 4 other options)

Advantages - Patrick's opinion

• The current implementation supports sorting on 1 until 4 elements. A drop down box would only support sorting on 1 element. But how oft is the "extra option" used?

[patrickakk]

Filter button

Filter popup window

[patrickakk]

Filter functionality

There can be filtered on:

• Country
• City
• Institution name
• Language of the course
• Tadirah Discipline
• Education type
• Is it an online course?
• Is the course recurring?

Disadvantages/remarks to filter functionality - Patrick's opinion

• Bug, reported here: Filter doesn't adapt cities list when selecting a country #76
  When selecting the filter for a country, the user expects that, when also selecting a filter for a city, only cities in the specified country can be selected. This is not the case. After selecting a country, the data is not updated, so all the cities outside the selected country are also shown, as well the course -in brackets- are also outdated. This also applied to other elements in the filter popup window.
• Filter options are only visible after clicking the button "Filter", and the button doesn't look very inviting to click on it.
• No possibility to search/filter on text or tags. This is partiality covered by the search bar.
• Maybe additional filter options are needed?
• The option to filter on Tadirah technique or object was broken and for the time being hidden, see here: Filter options result in "Error loading data" when selecting Tadirah technique or object #20

[patrickakk]

Search bar

Search bar showing results

[patrickakk]

Search bar functionality

Search on (a part of):

• Course name
• Institution name

Disadvantages/remarks to search bar functionality - Patrick's opinion

• The search term should be entered from the beginning of the word. When the first letter of a word is removed, the result is not found.
• No extended options available (tags, keyword, search in description or in other fields)

Advantages/remarks to search bar functionality - Patrick's opinion

• This simple search bar was introduced in the beginning of 2023. Until then it wasn't possible at all to search on course name.

[patrickakk]

Showing results when using sort or filter - behavior

• After closing the filter or sort popup window, the list on the left as well as the map are adjusted to the new selection
• The user has to click on a course, to select it
• Then click again to go to the course detail page

Showing results when using the current searchbar - behavior

• Results are shown and updated with every character the user types (typahead)
• The map and list on the left are not adjusted. The results are displayed on top of it
• When the user clicks on one of the results, the course detail page is shown directly

Both types of behavior are completely different. Please think about this when suggesting something new.

[patrickakk]

Recent idea's for improvements

• Tags / keywords

  • The admins create and maintain a list of tags. Course owners can apply one or more tags to a course.
  • How select the tags in at the main page (when the user wants to search)?

• Search also in course description or other fields

  • Which fields? Which ones not?
  • Do we need to check / maintain the content in for example the description fields for all courses?

• Stop using Tadirah?

• Create a more user friendly way to show/implement the filter and sort options

• Create "one-click" filter/search options, for example: "new courses" or "starting soon"

[patrickakk]

@IvdL22 @PixlTracer
cc for info @vronk

I'm looking forward to your response ;)

[vronk]

Consider introducing tags for filtering (as suggested in #70)

The tags will be pre defined in the admin area. Then lecturers can choose from this list when adding or updating a course.
Not clear: who will be managing the list of tags? Moderators or only the admins?

[PixlTracer]

#46 (comment)

[patrickakk]

As discussed in the meeting today, this issue is put on hold until input on the UI is received.