Opinion: New UI/View for Checkbox fields is BAD.

[Darryl Lee]

Opinion

In Jira, Checkboxes fields display (in View mode) exactly as Select List (multiple options). And in Edit mode they function identically.

This is bad.

(Also I realize now this is also the case on Server/DC, so this is not new. But it still super-annoying, resulting in hackery like this, which was a fun programming exercise, but I think it's due to a STUPID UI CHOICE.)

Discussion

So I get it. Checkboxes are Web 1.0. They're old. They take up tons of extra space.

But there's a pretty valuable point to always showing them: YOU CAN SEE WHAT WAS NOT CHECKED.

Here's how Checkboxes kind of used to look like LONG AGO in Jira, even if you were not editing the field. (I had to fake this because I do not have an old version of Jira nor do I want to spin one up):

Currently in both Jira Server/DC and Cloud, if you have a Checkbox field, the options only show up when editing the field. But once you are done editing, you ONLY see the options you have checked.

Functionally this is exactly the same as a multiple choice Select field.

Here are the two types of fields while being edited:

When you complete editing of the fields, and are viewing the issue you cannot tell the difference:

This is bad. The point of checkboxes isn't just a different user interface (and in this case, the difference is negligible), the point is that UNCHECKED OPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT. They provide VALUABLE CONTEXT.

Conclusion

If you want to not show all the options, then you can do that with a Select List (multiple options) field.

A Checkboxes field should SHOW CHECKBOXES even in on View screens. THIS IS BROKEN.

Of course modern UX/UI designers will pooh-pooh this and say I'm old. And it's true, I am. But I'm also right.

[Darryl Lee]

Ok. I've taken some deep cleansing breaths. No more ALL CAPS. Sorry about that.

So. A friend suggests I offer some real world examples to help explain.

Here's one: 

• How do I allow a customfield of type checkboxes to show the unchecked boxes in an issue ? 

emileL29 basically wanted a checklist like this:

Part of the point of a checklist is being able to see what has not been checked.

And I mean, there's a Checkboxes field, so it seems like this should be possible right? But no, Atlassian has taken a perfectly functional feature, and made it redundant with Select List (multiple choice), and then forced users to go with third-party "Checklist" solutions which all implement this slightly differently, and most importantly, require a third-party add-on and also probably more money.

In the use case that prompted my rant, @Darrin Lillian has a "Implementation Scope" field with 50 options (ok, admittedly this would be a very long field of checkboxes :-).

But I believe the point is that it is as important to see for each issue what options are NOT in scope as much as what options ARE in scope.

[Ajay _view26_]

@Darryl Lee  .. get your point ..but showing 50 options with your implementation will take up a lot of space 😃

[Darryl Lee]

Heh, yeah, 50 checkboxes is a bad example. :-}

I think it's actually going to be really interesting how this ends up looking in @Darrin Lillians final issues if he does in fact start out with all 50 options initially "checked" in the Scope field. I wonder if you might be able to share a screenshot?