Inline editing
I’m a huge fan of inline editing. AJAX technologies have made it relatively easy to allow users to directly manipulate data on screen, without going into some ‘edit’ mode. To me, flickr is one of the best examples of the usage of inline editing. For example, when browsing your own photo’s, it is just a matter of click and type to change a photo title or description, have a look at the video below:
As you can see in the video, no separate ‘edit’ mode. Just click the description to start typing. There are some visual clues that this text isn’t static: the background color changes when the mouse hovers over it and the cursor also changes into a ‘text-insert’ icon.
This way of editing enables a very smooth user experience, the flow isn’t interrupted at all.
Bookmark on del.icio.us - posted at 2 July 2007 - filed under ajax, editing, experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:51
[...] Link to Article ajax Inline editing » Posted at martijndevisser.com on Monday, July 02, 2007 [...]
July 6th, 2007 at 10:28
Yeah that looks like a really to-the-point approach, but doesn’t a mouse-cursor always transform into a text-caret icon when you hover over hypertext? It does in firefox/win..
July 7th, 2007 at 17:45
Yes, the mouse-cursor indeed turns into a tex-caret when hovering over ‘normal’ text, as that allows the user to select and copy text. It’s a good thing this behaviour is also used for online editing, user are already familiar with it.
July 10th, 2007 at 16:04
Editing inline is one of the best things of flickr. by the way, thanks for the FLV Player, its great. It’s really useful, especially at work where I can’t see streaming media sites. Thanks a lot, and sorry for my english, hehe
ara from mex.
July 28th, 2007 at 19:53
Off Topic :
The FLV player/Video Downloader is AWESOME.
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to create it (and put it out for free)
;)>
-Aaryn
August 8th, 2007 at 8:18
The best side of inline editing is how it brings working with web even closer to intearcting with the real-world objects. In everyday life, to change something, you do not switch to the special “edit mode” - you just take it and manipulate, so now web has this ability too.
The good point here regarding Flash Platform is Adobe provided editors for number of Flex components (as well as the approach of creation your own editors).