Different sequence of entries

Features Discussion
1

Hey Matt,

There’s something about Arc’s design that I often stumble upon: the order of entries/segments.

  1. Timeline view:
    NEW
    |
    OLD
    So far so good. This was to be expected and the visual design supports this sequence.

  2. Individuell Segments view:
    NEW
    |
    OLD
    Since it’s just a list of often two or more sections with no visual structure like above, why don’t the older sections come first?

  3. Split Segments view:
    OLD
    |
    NEW
    Now the visual element starts with a LEFT—RIGHT alignment, which logically supports the following list. But it is different from the other two cases above.

Maybe it’s just me, but I would prefer a reversed orientation in the second case because its purpose is more similar to Split Segments view than Timeline view. What do you think about this, Matt?

Thank you for your great app. Greetings from Berlin

1 Like
2

I kept that one the same order as timeline because it essentially shows the same type of thing, just one level deeper. Timeline view shows a date ordered list of timeline items within the day, and Individual Segments view shows a date ordered list of segments within a timeline item, so essentially a view one step deeper into the same timeline.

The Individual Segments view can also sometimes be long, if you haven’t used the Clean Up feature. Especially so in areas where there’s a lot of mixed mode transport (eg you sometimes walk, sometimes cycle, drive, bus, train, etc).

That ordering for Individual Segments view works intuitively for me. But I’d be curious to hear if many others find it unintuitive.

For Spit Segment view… yeah, I’m not happy with that one either. The left/right alignment messes up the situation from the start, and possibly should be the other way around. I often have to stop and think before nudging/sliding, to make sure I’ve interpreted the order correctly.

I think in that case I went with left → right because [most of us] read left to right. But I don’t feel confident that that was the right choice in that case.