The Sort Order Distrust Remains Provisionally Approved

SUMMARY

A list of files was sorted from oldest to newest. This produced a list that began with items the user did not need. The sort was changed to newest to oldest. This produced a list that began with items the user was looking for but in a sequence that felt somehow incomplete without the context of the older items.

The sort was changed back.

TIMELINE

9:14 AM: List opened. Default sort: date added, ascending. List contained 43 items.

9:14:30 AM: Sort changed to date modified, descending. The user wanted to find the most recently changed files. The new sort order surfaced four files changed this week.

9:15 AM: Sort changed to name, ascending. The user had a vague sense they knew the file name and wanted to scan alphabetically.

Under the governing rule, when a digital control creates doubt, additional clicking is recognized as a valid audit method.

9:15:40 AM: Sort changed back to date modified, descending. The name scan had not located the file because the file's name had been abbreviated and would not appear in the expected alphabetical position.

9:16 AM: Sort changed to date added, ascending. This was the original sort order. The user was checking whether returning to the original sort order would produce a different emotional response than it had at 9:14 AM.

It did not.

FINDING

Neither sort order is correct. Both sort orders are available. The user has tried both and trusts neither.

A second control was used to verify the first control. The second control was a manual scroll through all 43 items, which is not technically a sort order but functions as one. The file was located at item 28. It had been modified four days ago, which would have placed it near the top of a date-modified descending sort.

The sort had been correct. The user had changed it.

STATUS

The list is currently displayed in the order the user prefers, which is the order it was in at 9:14 AM before any changes were made.