Another Maace Postulate Instance: Analysis Rebuild

In addressing an issue relating to the CleanPowerFinance.com analysis page I came into another case of the maace postulate.  A two (plus) color scheme was used to seperate two regions: one was an entry area, the other was a report with detail relevant to the entry. This page revision began with the requirement to transform the select field for panel count/kw into a two-field Dojo widget that allowed entry in either field or adjustment via spinner controls.

There were other issues such as column spacing and general signal to noise violations of the worst kind (on top of a UI that had no analog anywhere else in the site).

My solution was to readdress the use of color to merge the common elements into a single visual block across several sections. I also made sure that the bottom right quadrant -- the metadata -- was clearly tied to the rows it reflected. Lastly the reference information was attached to the report, keeping the passive data and the active forms distinct. I also reversed the order, putting the entry in the key slot, while keeping the report data subordinate. (note -- the NSHP section not seen above is optional, driven by selections made on a previous screen.)

 In reality, the client was uncomfortable with this radical revision and forced the report back to the top of the screen, but I feel this layout is stil superior from a utilitarian point of view.