OBJECT GROUPING

A set of functions that allow users to search, select, group, sub-group, and color objects

With complex aerospace scenarios that might have thousands of rows in the element tree, a means to find, select, group, and order objects was essential. Users had been asking for this for years, and it had to satisfy their every need.

GALLERY

Object Grouping Nesting Levels
Object Grouping Selection Options
Object Grouping Filter Options
Object Grouping Drag n Drop
Object Grouping Menu Options
Object Grouping Additional Functions

DETAILS

Requirements

  • Group and sub-group objects
  • Rearrange groups
  • Search and select by name and object type to form groups
  • Sort and filter the tree
  • Move objects and sub-groups among groups
  • Select analytical color for groups or individual objects

My Involvement

  • Role : Sole designer
  • Timespan : 3 months

  • Scale : New functionality within an existing desktop-based aerospace application

Story

The product owner for STK (Systems Tool Kit) gave me a backlog of customer support tickets for the Object Browser panel and asked for a long-term vision that would solve as many problems as possible. The development team had wanted to implement object grouping for many releases, but other functionality had taken priority and no one had planned out the details.

The Object Browser was a flat, alphabetical list with no means to search, sort, filter, or reorder. With thousands of entries and only a scrollbar to look through them, there were recurring pain points in the user tickets.

Analysis went quickly, as the existing library was simple and I had recently researched, designed, and overseen implementation of similar grouping and filtering functions in another browser-based app. Behavior around menu options and multi-selection were particular to the desktop application, with the most complex aspect of the project being selection of large numbers of pre-existing objects and turning these selections into new groups.

With styles extremely limited by the software, there was no call for the final spec to go beyond wireframing all facets of the behavior.