gui design - Am I right to sort the the RHS listbox alphabetically in a paired-listbox GUI?

I have a Dual/Slaved/Paired Listbox GUI*, and I'm trying to convince colleagues that it makes the most sense for the RHS listbox to be sorted alphabetically rather than in order of addition, especially when there are no "up"/"down" controls to tinker with the sorting later.

• Am I right?


• How can I convince them? What precedent is there?

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* like this, but nicer:

Answer

Taking into account the fact that there is no semantic meaning to the order of addition, I think it would be best to sort the RHS list alphabetically, for the following reasons:

• 
  

  it is consistent with the LHS list;

  
  


• 
  

  when the user pops up the dialog again later (another day?), it will be easier to scan again and find some specific items to move them back to the LHS list, since long- and short-term would be of no help;

  
  



• 
  

  if the items in the list represent names of some standards and following a same pattern (for example, ISO 27000, ISO 27001, ISO 270002, etc.), it would be MUCH easier to read and find an particular item.

  
  

However, one thing to add that would really help the user see what happens when transferring items, is to select the newly transferred items in the destination list, for the following reasons:

• 
  

  since the transferred items are not added always at the same position, the selection would give a good feedback that items are transferred (and still look the same - selected) from one list to the other list, and where the new items are placed in destination list;

  
  


• 
  
  

  it would also be possible to quickly revert the transfer in just one click on the other transfer button.

  
  

We've just had the same issue on our project, and this is how we dealt with it. I hope this helps.