The concept of review feed as a user-defined set of filters for a specific review activity can help to support the above needs.
Users can quickly switch across different reviewing activities without the need to set all the individual filters again and again.
Possible scenarios illustrate how the general idea can work. A mockup below captures some of the key steps:
Using review feeds
- A review feed is defined by (a) a name and (b) a set of filters (or highlights).
- When a review feed is selected, all the filters associated to that feed and only those became the active filters.
- The Active filter panel shows the name of the active feed.
- The list of feeds can be displayed collapsed or expanded:
- When the list of feeds is collapsed, the most common feeds can be accessed with options to get to the expanded list. The number of filters to show initially and the criteria to do so has not been detailed yet (we can select the two feeds most often used, allow users to "pin" as many as they need, etc.).
- When the list of feeds is expanded, all the feeds are displayed in a list, with the active feed selected.
Special feeds
- The "New feed" represents the implicit initial feed that a user works with initially until it is saved as a new feed with a name. It is represented with a non-filled version of the bookmark icon regular feeds use.
- The "Default view" allows users to adjust the defaults. This feed is shown at the end of the list with a special cog icon. changing the default filters won't affect the existing defined feeds (since the changes may be against the intent those feeds were created with) or the sets of filters users may get through a link/bookmark.
Creating review feeds
- When the "new feed" is modified from the default values, an option to "add a new feed" (as well as an option to clear the filters) become available.
- The "add a new feed" option, creates a new feed with the current filters and let's the user name it. The recently created feed will become the one selected.
Updating review feeds
- When the active filters of a feed are modified, options will be provided to "restore" or "update" the feed from the active filters area.
- A "modified" indicator will be shown next to the feed name in the active filters area for clarity.
- The "restore" action will set the active filters to those from the current feed, reverting any changes the user made.
- The "update" action will set the current active filters for the selected feed, updating its definition.
Filter suggestions
- The filter panel includes a new "suggested filters" section. This section provides quick access to some filters that may be relevant. a suggestion may involve more than one filter to be added.
- Filters recently removed are suggested for users to quickly add them again if needed. This will facilitate the back and forth exploration. Only a few of the recent filters removed will be suggested, and the suggestions will never include a filter that is already among the active ones.
- The default filters will be also suggested when they are not present in the active filters. This makes it easy to add default filters that were removed, but also to update feeds that were created before the defaults were changed.