Usability Enhancement: Working with Widgets in Dynamic Panels with Scrollbars

Completed Rebecca ● 9 years ago

When dragging widgets to a position in a dynamic panel that scrolls, the added widget gets placed at the top of the panel instead of wherever you are scrolled to in the panel. Then you have to grab the floating element outside of the panel or use the arrow keys to re-position it. The same issue occurs when pasting inside a dynamic panel. This makes it really frustrating when you're trying to add multiple fields to the bottom of a longer panel.

Additionally, there is another issue when moving or clicking out of field in the panel. If adjusting the first widget or selecting a different widget, the scrollbar automatically jumps down to the top of the widget or even puts the next selected widget out of view if above the previously selected one. This makes it difficult to see the spacing if you're trying to adjust the gap or to get to the fields that were previously visible. The screen position inside a panel shouldn't move when I'm trying to move a widget, just like it doesn't outside of a scrolling panel. I have a video demonstrating this issue: http://screencast.com/t/93P6kqpZe

Sure, you could make the panel as long as you need it and then shrink it, but in future iterations of the design, that is more of a workaround instead of a fix. It'd be much better for the interface to understand where you are inside the panel and not just throw the pasted or added widget at the top or jump around automatically.