Shortlist-It

a tool to assist in the decision-making process by adding ranking criteria that can be tracked over time.

use case: determining which television to purchase

1) setup the criteria used in the rankings:

determine which criteria is important to you and create a new criteria entry picking a name, set of values and a type (see criteria types section below for more information on the possible types and their meanings)

criteria name	criteria values	criteria type
cost	$$$$, $$$, $$, $	worst-to-best
size	XS, S, M, L, XL	worst-to-best
apps	0, 1-5, 6-10, 11+	worst-to-best
HDMI ports	0, 1, 2, 3, 4+	worst-to-best
audio ports	3.5mm, RCA, optical	worst-to-best (multiselect)

2) then enter the data

between 4 randomly choosen brands, the data is entered and automatically ranked using the critera entered in step 1

ranking	entry	cost	size	apps	HDMI ports	audio ports
1	JVC LT-40CA790 Android TV 40" Smart Full HD LED TV with Google Assistant	$$	M	11+	3	3.5mm, optical
2	TCL 32RS520K Roku 32" Smart HD Ready LED TV	$	S	11+	2	3.5mm, optical
3 (tie)	LG 28TN515S 28" Smart HD Ready LED TV	$$	XS	11+	1	RCA, optical
3 (tie)	SAMSUNG UE50TU7020KXXU 50" Smart 4K Ultra HD HDR LED TV	$$$$	L	11+	2	optical

3) use the ranking to determine actions

in the above example, the JVC 40" TV has the highest ranking based on your defined criteria

NOTE: each television has many more criteria that could have been used, but if a user doesn't care about those other options they just are noise that makes it difficult to choose so only enter the values that are important to you and you'll easily be able to choose a winner

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use case: determine which friends to invest your time in

1) setup the criteria used in the rankings:

determine which criteria is important to you and create a new criteria entry picking a name, set of values and a type (see criteria types section below for more information on the possible types and their meanings)

criteria name	criteria values	criteria type
giver or taker	taker, both, giver	worst-to-best
feeling when with them	anger, agitation, sadness, nothingness, warmth, joy, elation	worst-to-best
activity level	none, extreme, low, moderate	worst-to-best
makes me a better person	true, false	boolean
good features	tidy, fashionable, kind, athletic, attractive, intelligent	positives

2) then enter the data

enter each friend's data and they will be automatically ranked based on the critera entered in step 1

ranking	entry	giver or taker	feeling when with them	activity level	makes me a better person	good features
1	Mark	giver	joy	moderate	false	kind, athletic, intelligent
2	Carl	giver	joy	low	true	kind, intelligent
3	Sophie	both	warmth	low	false	tidy, attractive
4	Roger	taker	nothingness	moderate	true	athletic, intelligent

3) use the ranking to determine actions

in the above example, both Mark and Carl should get the most time, attention and effort

NOTE: each relationship has many more criteria that could have been used, but if a user doesn't care about those other options they just are noise that makes it difficult to choose so only enter the values that are important to you and you'll easily be able to choose a winner

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Criteria

each criteria contains a unique free-form name and values which are used to allocate points to a given entry for the category defined by the criteria. any criteria can be added either before any entries exist or after and adding them after will leave the values as undefined for all existing entries until specifically assigned.

Criteria Types

the following types can be used when adding criteria used in the rankings:

type	description
worst-to-best	a list where more points are given to items at the end of the list and less to items at the beginning. there is also the option to allow multi-select of the items in the list and if this is enabled, the points are still assigned the same way, but multiple selections are added together to get the final score for this criteria
boolean	either the criteria is true and a point is awarded or false and no point is awarded
positives	a multi-select list where each item selected awards only 1 point and the overall value for this criteria is determined by the sum of values selected
negatives	a multi-select list where each item selected subtracts 1 point and the overall value for this criteria is determined by the sum of values selected as a negative number applied to the overall total

Criteria Data Structure

type CriteriaType = 'worst-to-best' | 'boolean' | 'positives' | 'negatives';
type Criteria = {
    name: string;
    type: CriteriaType;
    values?: Array<string>;
    multiple?: boolean; // allow selection of multiple values
};

// example: worst-to-best
const size: Criteria = {
    name: 'size',
    type: 'worst-to-best',
    values: ['XS', 'S', 'M', 'L', 'XL']
};

// example: worst-to-best multiselect
const audioPorts: Criteria = {
    name: 'audio ports',
    type: 'worst-to-best',
    values: ['3.5mm', 'RCA', 'optical'],
    multiple: true
};

// example: boolean
const betterPerson: Criteria = {
    name: 'makes me a better person',
    type: 'boolean'
}

---

Entries

each entry must contain a unique free-form name / description that is used to differentiate it from other entries. an entry can be created before any criteria or after criteria have been defined. when creating an entry where criteria already exist, you will be able to add values for the entry immediately and any criteria left unset will have a value of undefined.

Entry Data Structure

type Entry = {
    description: string;
    values: Map<string, string | Array<string>>
};

// example: fully defined
const jvcLt: Entry = {
    description: 'JVC LT-40CA790 Android TV 40" Smart Full HD LED TV with Google Assistant',
    values: new Map([
        ['cost', '$$'],
        ['size', 'M'],
        ['apps', '11+'],
        ['HDMI ports', '3'],
        ['audio ports', ['3.5mm', 'optical']]
    ])
};

// example: partially defined
const tcl: Entry = {
    description: 'TCL 32RS520K Roku 32" Smart HD Ready LED TV',
    values: new Map([
        ['cost', undefined],
        ['size', 'S'],
        ['apps', '11+'],
        ['HDMI ports', undefined],
        ['audio ports', undefined]
    ])
};

UX Mockups

Interactions and Layout

Future Ideas

• historical tracking and future trends prediction
• export / import data
• integration with external applications for storage or values selections
• templated Criteria and Shortlist to make the process of creating new lists easier for common use cases as well as to provide re-use of user-created items