atypical UI behavior when items are removed from lists
Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:28 pm
The issue can be seen with the 'take' window. To reproduce this behavior you need a large pile of items on the floor, at least enough to have a scroll bar, preferably twice that or more.
Stand on the pile and issue the 'pickup items' command. Scroll down a good ways and left click to pick up one item. The list scrolls back to the top and the selected item becomes the first item in the list. This is disorienting and not what most UI's do. Normal UI behavior, I think, is to set the new current list item to the one after the one removed, with all the items in the list after the one picked moving up so the items in the list above the one picked up do not move, and a newly visible item added at the very bottom. The cursor doesn't move and the location on the screen of the currently selected item doesn't move.
The "standard" UI behavior enables you to pick up three items in a row from the middle of the list with three left clicks. The current behavior, should you try that, picks up the item you want, then the first and second items in the list by accident. To get three from the middle of the list you have to scroll down in between each pickup
The problem is visible without a scroll bar, but only because the current item jumps to the top, which isn't so jarring when you aren't scrolled down, but that's still atypical UI behavior.
I hope this is a one or two line change to set the current item to the old next item after an item is removed from an item list.
I think this change should be global, applying to all list dialogs where things can be removed without the list closing afterwards.
Stand on the pile and issue the 'pickup items' command. Scroll down a good ways and left click to pick up one item. The list scrolls back to the top and the selected item becomes the first item in the list. This is disorienting and not what most UI's do. Normal UI behavior, I think, is to set the new current list item to the one after the one removed, with all the items in the list after the one picked moving up so the items in the list above the one picked up do not move, and a newly visible item added at the very bottom. The cursor doesn't move and the location on the screen of the currently selected item doesn't move.
The "standard" UI behavior enables you to pick up three items in a row from the middle of the list with three left clicks. The current behavior, should you try that, picks up the item you want, then the first and second items in the list by accident. To get three from the middle of the list you have to scroll down in between each pickup
The problem is visible without a scroll bar, but only because the current item jumps to the top, which isn't so jarring when you aren't scrolled down, but that's still atypical UI behavior.
I hope this is a one or two line change to set the current item to the old next item after an item is removed from an item list.
I think this change should be global, applying to all list dialogs where things can be removed without the list closing afterwards.