Designing the Graphical User Interface › Graphical Design Standards › Standardize the Approach for Single Windows › All Controls on One Window Approach

All Controls on One Window Approach

In this approach, you design a window to handle all the tasks a user may want to perform. In this window, all the controls are available at the same time. For example, a list window may contain search criteria, sorts, filters, a detail area, and navigation buttons.

This approach lets the user enter search criteria, perform the search, select or add a row, make changes to it, save the changes, and flow to a related business object on one window.

All controls are available at the same time. This may confuse the user by presenting misleading results. For example:

• The user may perform a search, then change the search criteria, and then be distracted before performing the search. When the user returns from the distraction, there is no way to tell if the program performed the search. The user would perform the search again to be sure.
• If the user did not perform the search before the distraction, the data in the list would not correspond to the search criteria.