WORK IN PROGRESS
Introduction
There are numerous display patters we’ll reuse throughout the LiteFarm application. There’s a lot of value in creating and reusing a pattern. First and foremost, it allows users to develop an intuition about how to interact with new parts of the application based on their experiences in other parts of the app. Secondly, it makes creation of different parts of the application easier and faster for the design and engineering team to create. Rather from starting from scratch, we can ask ourselves a series of questions and land on an appropriate starting place. Here’s a rough guide to the right pattern:
Collection views
Collection views exist where we need to display many similar or dissimilar things to a user. For example, we would use a collection view when displaying locations on a farm map, crops in a crop catalogue, or types of activities that could happen on a farm. When deciding the appropriate way to represent these collections, we should refer back to our Paradigm. What is the most accessible method to show something to a user? Does a map, picture, or verbiage most effectively convey the idea we’re trying to impart?
Map view
For almost anything that can be seen on a map or is best explained in the context of a map, we should… use a map!
For example, showing the gate to this farm (on the right side) in relation to the rest of the farm locations is much, much more helpful for the user than displaying either a picture of the gate or a description of the gate in a collection of other pictures or descriptions.
Tile view
Tile views are best employed when an image of the “thing” will more quickly convey information about the thing and allow the user to differentiate and make a selection than showing it on a map or describing it in words. Images have the added benefit of being easily understood across different languages.
A quick note: being able to show an image is not an invitation to eschew text completely! As shown in the image above, we still need to give additional context with other approaches as necesary.
List view
A note on homogenous and heterogenous collection views
There will be times when we want to show a collection of “things” that aren’t the same type (homogenous). For example, when creating a task I should be able to either target a location (best displayed on a map) or a crop (best displayed with tiles). In these cases, a search interface that clearly defines which collection a “thing” comes from may be best.
Detail view
Detail view
Detailed with related collection view(s)