7:56 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
Hi Malini,
> This could work but I am not a big fan of simply adding iconic columns
> preceding the name. This is actually a good example where 2 icon columns
> are
> already there and adding another column is making the primary column ( i.e
> the name column) not seem like the first column the eye focuses on.
not sure that I completely agree with that: if I am taking my e-mail client,
for example - it has a lot of icon columns that precede the primary columns
('From', 'Subject'), however I don't think that it makes the primary
columns
any less 'catchy' (see attached
'e-mail-client--a-lot-of-preceding-icons.png').
Having said that - it may depend on the actual content of the icon columns
(i.e. in my e-mail example, the icon-columns are mostly empty, whereas in the
VMs main tab example, at least the 'status' and 'vm-type' icon columns
are
expected to always contain some icon), so not sure.
Leaving obscure open source email clients aside ;), gmail also has icon columns,
although without any title or boundaries but visually it looks like a column..
> I understand that it is not as easy implementation-wise but in the effort
> to
> start moving towards a more elegant solution, I am wondering if we can cash
> in on what users may have learned in spreadsheet software and use a dog ear
> image at the corner of the name cell ( See attached). This way, we are not
> dedicating any more space and it does not take away space allotted to the
> text string either. The visual details of the icon are not final and this
> is
> sent to communicate an idea only. If we agree on this, I will send the
> final
> icon to use.
this solution is nice and elegant - I like it;
my main concern is that I am not sure how will we be able to sort the items
by that field if we won't have a dedicated column for it (once column sorting
will be available in general, of course).
my other concern is indeed the implementation effort that would need to be
involved in it.
Not sure how interesting it is to sort by comment, but for the sake of not
blocking it - a dedicated (small) column seems good to me.
Question is if it is something that is worth considering if we decide that
the
extra-icon-column solution is acceptable.
Another option (at least for the short term) for solving the real-estate
problem
without changing anything in the primary column area is to keep the 'Comment'
column in its current location, only replace its textual title with an icon
title
(see attached 'move-comment-column--option-1-variation.png').
I think if the comment is among the first to appear it serves it's purpose
better since the admin can clearly see that someone left a comment there and
pay attention to it, whereas if it's on the far side it can easily be missed
(or even hidden on a lower res screen).
P.S. I think icon columns should probably be non-resizeable as it really makes
no sense to resize them (they have a minimum width anyway).