[Libreoffice-ux-advise] [Bug 147326] UI: "augmented reality" hovering mode (immediate display of underlying formulas etc.)

[bugzilla-daemon at bugs.documentfoundation.org]

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147326

--- Comment #3 from Robert Lacroix <ralacroix at hydro.mb.ca> ---
The visual cortex is insanely faster at recognizing patterns than the conscious
mind. To the user it feels like a video game. Blinkenlights empowers the user
to see the spreadsheet more efficiently.

> Let's start with a use case.

A user wants to verify that a pattern of cell references occurs in formulas
consistently across a group of cells, and that certain formulas in the group
differ in a specific way. This is useful where frequent copying/pasting of
cells can introduce mistakes, and when transposing may produce unexpected
results.

This is somewhat trivial for small spreadsheets, but is time-consuming and
error-prone for larger spreadsheets. For very large sheets, it's better to
unconditionally copy and paste a desired repeating formula pattern into the
range, because that's faster and more reliable than visual inspection. Best of
course would be to use protected cells, but that's not always desirable or
feasible. Range formulas can be another solution, but they're not the easiest
objects to work with and in my experience most people never use them.

For a simple example, a column contains relative references forming a running
calculation like a cumulative sum, and the first row contains a different
formula pattern or a constant to initialize the calculation. The user wants to
ensure that the relative formula in every rows is the same except the first
row.

With status quo, the user must go to each cell to see its formula. This
displays a black-and-white cell formula in the input line, which the user must
read and interpret. More visual feedback is provided by pressing F2 which adds
coloured outlines to cell references and colours the corresponding references
of the in-cell formula (but not the input line), at the cost of adding two more
keystrokes for each cell examined. This is better but imperfect, however, since
some outlines may be hidden by the in-cell editor, particularly when the
in-cell formula covers multiple cells, and it adds the risk of inadvertently
changing a formula. Simply colouring cell references in the input line the same
as the in-cell editor would improve regular F2 edit mode, and that's
essentially modification 3.

The new hovering mode allows the user to scan the pointer down the column and
watch as the pattern of coloured cell outlines follows the pointer down,
remaining the same or momentarily jumping to a different shape or colour
layout. This is extremely fast by virtue of relying on the user's inate ability
to see disturbances in a pattern, much faster than using the higher-level brain
functions of reading and understanding formulas. This basically automates the
keystrokes of the manual F2 process but also protects the cells. The user
validates the first formula in a group by inspection, then swipes the pointer
through the range to see that other formulas use the same pattern.

The fine motor control required of the user to swipe the mouse over the cells
of interest can even be eliminated, if LO highlights the block of adjacent
cells that share the same relative formula as the cell under the pointer.

I realize as well that this will be fast, the user may want the page to scroll
automatically when approaching the visible edge of the cells currently
displayed. However, that's not part of this proof-of-concept.

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