[kde-guidelines] Phrasing of selection teasers

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

On 03.09.2013 15:47, Diego Moya wrote:

> The dual-list pattern *is* outdated - it's a remanent of a time where
> list views couldn't show checkboxes for checkable items and required
> ctrl+click for multiple selection. Adding a column with checkboxes to
> items in the selection list eliminates the need for a second separate
> list, and provides a simpler interaction, where a multiple selection is
> made with a single click on each selected item, instead of requiring a
> second click on the horizontal "add/remove" arrows.

Sorry, but no. If you have a long list ("long" being anything from a few 
times the number that can be seen without scrolling to huge numbers), 
using checkboxes does _not_ work well at all. Once you've arrived at the 
bottom of the list, you cannot remember which items you selected at the 
beginning of the list, so you keep scrolling back and forth through the 
list, desperately trying to remember which items you've selected. 
Relying on memory is hardly ever better than making things always visible.

The two-list pattern may look ugly and feel cumbersome, but for 
selecting multiple items out of longer lists, I know no pattern that 
comes even close to it from a usability perspective in the end.

How come everyone keeps trying to tell me that dual lists are outdated 
but nobody has come up with an alternative that actually works well yet? 
As soon as I'm presented with a working alternative, I'll happily get 
rid of that pattern.