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Status Future consideration
Categories Reports Search
Created by Stefan Tzanev
Created on Oct 5, 2017

Improve filters for ease-of-use and increased user productivity

Problem

We use filters a lot, but they are super clunky, requiring multiple clicks to change the filter, and with some Internet latency b/w the clicks the UX suffers even more. This slows us (me) down.

Combining of the filter field selection with filter values into a single dialog makes filtering very slow as well. As added “bonus”, clicking “Show All” not only clears the filtering, but it wipes out all my filter fields.

Frequent (Nagging) Mistakes
  • Forgetting to click on the blue Filter button - habit from other tools that apply the filter immediately when the filter value is selected and do not require additional (useless, imho) clicking on a button. As a result, I have to open up the filter dialog again and apply the filter again.
  • Clicking on the "Show All", thinking that this will clear the filter only, but it clears also the filter configuration. Next time when I want to filter, I have to configure that filter fields again - a lot of time wasted. Very annoying.
  • Clicking on the "Customize epic cards" gear, thinking that this is the filter configuration - the green filter icon and the green gear icon being next to each often confuses me that the gear icon is for configuring the filters - the actual configuration of the filter is hidden in the filter dialog, making it unintuitive to find, especially that the Aha designers use the same icon for both "change filters" and "add filter" actions

Suggested Solution/Design

Ideally, I would like to have the selection of the filter fields separate from selecting the filter values from these fields. Something similar to what we have in GitHub:

  • (1) Epic Search field always present at the bar - no need to add it to the filter configuration. Searching epics by text is a very natural thing and is the first thing that we usually try to do when trying to find epics during a discussion.
  • (2) the filter fields configuration can change, but it is not a primary task - filter configuration should be separated from providing the specific values to filter by
  • (2) selecting values for the filter automatically applies the filter and does not require pushing of a “Filter” button
  • (3) the filter values show up clearly on the menu bar - this way it’s clear that the view is filtered and what it was filtered with
  • (4) filter values (tags) can be cleared with a single click, either individually (click the ‘x’ on the filter tag) or all (click on “Show All" - an action that does not destroy my selection of filter fields, but just clears the field values)
  • (2,4) separate the "show all" (currently applied filter) from "clear all" (for clearing the filter configuration).

NOTE: The numbers in the parentheses (1-4) direct to the areas in the attached image.

  • Attach files
  • Nicolas Guerin
    Reply
    |
    Jun 4, 2019

    I would love for the filtering to have a text-based advanced mode like Jira. It makes it simpler to use complex AND/OR structures by using parentheses instead of the somewhat clunky group and subgroup menu.