User interface suggestions
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I'm currently on site with a customer we've developed an online booking system for their rental units. One unique feature here is that due to the nature of the location, they book by unit number instead of room type. i.e. We're booking you in Villa #511, overlooking Something Bay, 1/2 kilometer from the store... For online booking we're showing room level availability online, and simply let the customer select an available room and move on to the next step. The issue is that they have long had a problem where people want extended stays during periods of high occupancy, and are willing to move from unit to unit in order to do this. I'm stuck on how to present this to the customer through the online booking site. We can get back a resultset from their rooming software to show the entire room inventory status, but how to let someone select a few days in Villa #511 because that's all it's available for, and the rest of their stay in Villa #515? I haven't come up with any ideas that don't seem confusing, or involve weeks worth of additional development. My first thought was some variant of a grid, with the ability to select multiple cells, but I haven't had any luck trying to manipulate one to allow multiple non adjacent cell selection. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
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I'm currently on site with a customer we've developed an online booking system for their rental units. One unique feature here is that due to the nature of the location, they book by unit number instead of room type. i.e. We're booking you in Villa #511, overlooking Something Bay, 1/2 kilometer from the store... For online booking we're showing room level availability online, and simply let the customer select an available room and move on to the next step. The issue is that they have long had a problem where people want extended stays during periods of high occupancy, and are willing to move from unit to unit in order to do this. I'm stuck on how to present this to the customer through the online booking site. We can get back a resultset from their rooming software to show the entire room inventory status, but how to let someone select a few days in Villa #511 because that's all it's available for, and the rest of their stay in Villa #515? I haven't come up with any ideas that don't seem confusing, or involve weeks worth of additional development. My first thought was some variant of a grid, with the ability to select multiple cells, but I haven't had any luck trying to manipulate one to allow multiple non adjacent cell selection. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
from your explanation a grid sounds the most logical and easily presentable way. Youd could perhaps have two dt pickers in the table row that allow for start & end stay for that room alternatively you could allow them to drill down to the room from the table, then on that page they could set start and end datetime either way, this sounds like it is a non-std way of doing things so extra development will more than likely be inevitable. hth g00fy
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from your explanation a grid sounds the most logical and easily presentable way. Youd could perhaps have two dt pickers in the table row that allow for start & end stay for that room alternatively you could allow them to drill down to the room from the table, then on that page they could set start and end datetime either way, this sounds like it is a non-std way of doing things so extra development will more than likely be inevitable. hth g00fy
g00fyman wrote:
from your explanation a grid sounds the most logical and easily presentable way. Youd could perhaps have two dt pickers in the table row that allow for start & end stay for that room alternatively you could allow them to drill down to the room from the table, then on that page they could set start and end datetime either way, this sounds like it is a non-std way of doing things so extra development will more than likely be inevitable.
Thanks for the confirmation. Yep, this and a few other surprises with their business practices are going to add a little time to this project. I've ended up showing them a GridView with the dates for column names and room numbers as the first row, but I'm having challenges with the selection process. Probably been looking at it too long...