Starred list - bug
Completed
In the new design of the starred list, the order of my favourites has been jumbled. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this - I assumed it was ordered by "recent", but it appears just to be random. I preferred the alphabetized list of the previous version - and also the whole user experience of the old version was better. (I added some feedback on this as a comment under the "Starred list request" post on the feature request page.) Thanks
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Thanks for writing in and letting us know. Sorry to change something unexpectedly on you.
Many users over the years have written in to ask that the list NOT be alphabetical so they can find more relevant items faster.
This solution seemed to be a nice compromise and we picked it for the following reasons:
1. It gives you faster access to things you actually use often
2. We inconsistently had the list alphabetized on some devices and not on others, this unified things
3. This paves the way for other smart option of recent searches, recent starred pages, recent others, etc.
Here's the explanation we just published about it: https://blog.workflowy.com/2019/04/24/a-faster-way-to-jump-around-workflowy/
We are hoping to build a sidebar to keep a solid list of favorites in an order you choose. That will help too.
All of that being said, we are very much listening and you're not the only one who has written in with this frustration. We can reconsider this if it is causing too much pain.
Please give it a try for a week and then let us know if it's still frustrating. We really value and appreciate your thoughts.Thanks,
Lee
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Thanks for the reply, Lee! I've been trying it over the last few days, and for my usage I prefer the general speed/simplicity and user experience of the previous version. If the UI had stayed the same (dropdown on the left directly under the star icon) and you had added order options (so people like me can leave it alphabetical if we wish), I'd welcome that.
But my main point was to report a bug in the list order, which doesn't seem to be working for me. i.e. It's not ordered by recently viewed or recently edited pages. It just seems to be random/scrambled and doesn't change as pages are viewed/edited.
Also, I use Chrome, and ctrl-k reveals the Google search bar list, which overlays the starred list which appears beneath it. Plus, if I access Workflowy on my Chromebook rather than PC, ctrl-k only pulls up the Google search bar. These two things in particular - random order and shortcut key not working - make it a more clunky UX for me and something I can't effectively use.
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For me the list order also seems to be random. Previously I knew the list order and could jump between things quicky. Now every time I need to stop, stare at the new random order and try to make sense of it.
Wouldn't it be better to add possibility to reorder the list manually? Just like in the rest of workflowy? I think that is one of the main things that workflowy is about actually - flexibility ;)
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After gathering lots of feedback, we have decided to try out a compromise.
If you click the Star button with a mouse, it will open the old pull-down menu in alphabetical order (as it used to).
If you use the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl K or Ctrl Semi-Colon), it will bring up the new dynamic menu sorted by most-recent.
Try it out in beta.workflowy.com and let us know if this compromise solution works for you.
Thanks! -
Same issue but different diagnostic.
I removed all favorites and re-favorited them to control the order (or so I thought); doesn't work and if I removed them all... seems there should be no 'memory' of which is used most.
For me, speed comes from predictability, not proximity. This is rather core to the idea behind keyboard shortcuts and increased speed with any app over time. I have hundreds of keyboard shortcuts memorized, and similarly a predictable sequence of favorites is always going to be faster than one that constantly changes, even if it changes according to usage.
Clearly my use of 'always' is hyperbole, but it's much 'less wrong' than assuming recent use should be pushed to the top.
IMO it's anathema to all that is WF to make sequence automatic. It removes my choice and my ability to go fast.
That said, I'm not all pissy about this - just pointing out what feels like a cultural issue with WF ui and users.
The auto search box really helps because I can be consistent here. Thx.
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