Interface Design: what are the options to alert user to duplicate values

News & General Discussion
1

Hi community.

I’m playing with a game design screen where a user can enter multiple countries with attributes. I’ve decided against using index IDs, as I want this to be moddable using CSV or XML. The interface is a panel of cloned panels with input fields (basically a grid list) so when a user enters a country or abbreviation that already exists, they need to be told “No”.

Great Britain, GB, Constitutional Monarchy
United States of America, USA, Democratic Republic
Canada, Can, Constitutional Monarchy; etc

I have my UI detecting duplicate values by searching the canonical data, but I don’t know what to do about it when I find one. Things I’ve thought about doing:

  • Locking the user to the specific input field unit it’s corrected

  • Resetting the input field to the original value (annoying if it’s a mistype and only needs a character change)

  • Full-screen modal window to require re-entry and validation (I’ll have to learn this skill at some point anyway)

  • Letting it go, but not allowing saving till its fixed (this has risks, as the canon data may be corrupted if I do it wrong… Or at all)

  • Using a primary key index (and off-screen index text component) to track duplicates for later correction (I just don’t want too)

  • Using a primary key index with a GUID to track duplicates for later correction (Actually this sounds kinda cool, but is probably overkill)

I’m sure there’s other ways to alert on duplicate values, so I’ll throw it open to ideas

2

Modern UIs on the Internet use icons and messages that show up near the text field when an error occurs.

3130590--237147--gmail-error.jpg 3130590--237148--reddit-error.jpg

2 Likes
3

That’s exactly what I needed! I can hold the changes in the input field, set an error state and alert the user to the problem. I will disable any commits until the error is rectified.If the user moves on to other fields, i can just park it till they either come back to it, or if they choose not to, a discard/cancel dialog box to prevent lost work.

thanks for the tip.