Custom sort order in the database
I have a table of products in a database. It is used to populate the dropdown on the website.
The list is currently listed alphabetically, but my client suggested that if he signs up for Coca Cola as a customer, they might want to put "Vanilla Coke" as the product at the top of the list, followed by "Coke," then save the rest to alphabetical order.
This seems like a bad usability solution ... any other opinions?
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Depends on how they use the form. If they're going to use vanilla coke, it makes sense to have it close to the top.
You see the same idea quite a lot in dropdowns on websites. A site primarily used in the US could become US as the first item.
Remember, maybe the problem is that you have too many items in the dropdown and need to look for other alternatives (AJAX autosuggest is one approach)?
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It depends on the nature of your website. If Coca Cola people mainly choose their own products, this is an absolutely perfect solution. I even went further and separated the Coca Cola product from the rest with a white / horizontal line:
____________________
Select Product: | Vanilla Coke | + | <- This is kinda' dropdown
| Coke |
| -------------|
| A Product |
| X Product |
----------------
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This makes a lot of sense to me. I have to deal with multiple searchlists that are ordered first by SequenceID and then alphabetically. Its implementation is simple: just add the SequenceID to the record and sort by SequenceID first, then name. You can even group items together using SequenceID.
In fact, your client wants to have items in custom groups based on their importance. This makes a lot of sense, especially when working with long lists where popular items are arranged in a list. It is very useful!
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If it makes sense to the user and they want it. Well worth a try, at least.
They can ask for something that is most often used to be always at the top. In this case, it would be a very good use case.
Another alternative might not be changing the order, but changing the default selection (to one in the middle of the list).
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I guess it depends. If an item is selected more than another (for example, 80% of the time) and it ends up in the top 5 or 6 items, users will get tired of scrolling through the list very quickly to find that item. Entering it at the top of the list may be more user-friendly.
You need to weigh the decrease in intuition versus actual use.
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