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Jason Chan

03/21/2023, 12:19 AM
Working on connectors for our our table blocks! But question for you all…do you think we should auto-generate the connectors as soon as blocks reference one another? Or should we let the user decide which blocks should have connectors? Here’s an example:
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Mattia Fregola

03/21/2023, 3:42 AM
not sure what your product is but it looks very clean! a couple of qualifying questions :D 1. is there a functional difference between a block that only references a another, and a block that both references another but is also connected? 2. when a connection is created, what happens next
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Jason Chan

03/21/2023, 4:32 AM
Thank you appreciate it! 1. there would be no functional difference 2. Nothing happens when a connection is created--currently it’s just a visual cue because folks have said they wanted to see the relationship between blocks and how they’re connected
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Mattia Fregola

03/21/2023, 9:55 PM
cool! then i'd probably test the following with the same users: • automatically add the connection when a relation is created • remove the ability to add connections manually i also imagine there being some more explorations about the behaviour of connectors (and relationships) with tables with formulas with multiple inputs, e.g. ◦ from multiple columns ◦ from different tables ◦ from multiple columns from the same table i see a high spaghetti-clutter risk there 😄 (if it's a difficult build and you are able to mock it up, you could even test just the final state screens and ask users what they think each variations means)
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Arvind Thyagarajan

03/22/2023, 11:21 PM
though the risk of a noodl-y mess is very very real, I'd say that the node/wire handshake is direct perception of data & action flow the connectors remove the cognitive load of keeping track of what effects what in 2D space -- so my inclination would be to draw them always also, if a user draws some but not others, that inconsistency is even more cognitive load, where the legibility of the graph now depends on a previous builder (or even yourself 2 months ago!) making the right choices in terms of which connector to manifest
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Jason Chan

03/22/2023, 11:52 PM
ohhhhh the point that some blocks have connector and others not adding cognitive load is a good point that I didn’t even consider…
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Joakim Ahnfelt-Rønne

03/29/2023, 5:23 PM
Another idea: Automatically add the connectors, but only show the connectors when hovering over a table, and only to/from that table.