Collection

Problem Context

• Items may be documents, training modules, products, files, assets, articles, records, examples, forms, media, or tasks.
• The set can be manually curated, saved by a user, generated by an editor, published for a topic, shared with a team, copied as a starting point, or maintained as a durable content page.
• Users may need to add, remove, reorder, group, filter, sort, open, copy, share, export, subscribe to, or delete the collection.
• The same item may appear in multiple collections, and permission, localization, availability, or product state can change what each viewer sees.

Selection Rules

• Choose collection when the item set has its own name, purpose, owner, audience, membership, ordering, grouping, or sharing behavior.
• Use collection when users need to save explicit items rather than save criteria.
• Use collection when users need to curate a recommended sequence, reading list, asset kit, form pack, playlist, saved product set, or document bundle.
• Use list view when the primary task is scanning and acting on row summaries, not managing the set as a named object.
• Use browse by category when the user is navigating a taxonomy rather than inspecting a specific curated set.
• Use related links for a short contextual link group tied to one page, especially when there is no independent collection object.
• Use recommendations when the system ranks suggested items from signals or editorial rules rather than preserving explicit collection membership.
• Use saved search or saved filter when the set is regenerated from criteria and membership changes automatically as matching items change.
• Avoid collection when the set has no stable membership rule, no reason to revisit, and no collection-level action or metadata.
• Avoid collection when a table, data grid, map, feed, or timeline better expresses the main task and collection behavior would add false ownership.

Required States

• Default collection state with title, description, owner or source, item count, visibility, updated time, and primary action.
• Item state with stable label, type, status, section, order, preview or summary, and item-scoped actions.
• Manual order, sorted order, sectioned order, filtered view, and no-results states.
• Add item, remove item, reorder item, move between sections, copy collection, share collection, and delete collection states when supported.
• Shared, private, team-visible, read-only, editable, copied, subscribed, and permission-limited states.
• Empty collection, newly created collection, loading, partial-load, failed-load, stale-link, hidden-item, unavailable-item, and archived-item states.
• Bulk selection or multi-item operation state when collection actions can affect more than one item.
• Narrow-screen state that keeps collection identity, item identity, count, and primary actions visible without collapsing into unlabeled cards.

Interaction Contract

• Collection actions and item actions have separate labels, placement, confirmation, and post-action feedback.
• Filtering or sorting changes the current view without silently changing collection membership.
• Removing an item, deleting a section, copying a collection, or deleting the whole collection states the affected scope before destructive commit.
• Adding an item confirms which collection received it and whether the item can belong to multiple collections.
• Reordering uses stable item IDs and announces the new position or section without losing focus.
• Shared viewers can tell whether they are seeing all items, a permission-limited subset, localized item labels, or unavailable content.
• Counts distinguish total collection items from visible, selected, hidden, filtered, unavailable, and permission-limited items when those differ.
• Copying or duplicating a collection makes ownership, permissions, and future edits clear.

Implementation Checklist

• Define the collection object: title, description, owner, visibility, membership rule, allowed item types, sections, order model, item count, update policy, and supported actions.
• Separate item actions from collection actions in labels, hit targets, permissions, analytics, and confirmation flows.
• Choose item presentation based on item inspection needs: compact rows for scanning, visual cards for preview, grouped links for documents, or specialized views for media and maps.
• Implement empty, no-results, permission-limited, unavailable-item, loading, failed-load, shared read-only, copy, delete, and stale-link states.
• Persist item identity, order, section, selection, and focus across filtering, sorting, reordering, refresh, and permission changes.
• Expose total count and visible count when filters, permissions, or unavailable items make them differ.
• Label share, copy, remove, delete, reorder, subscribe, and export actions with the collection or item name they affect.
• Test keyboard operation, screen reader names, drag alternatives for reordering, destructive confirmations, shared-link permissions, long titles, localization, and mobile wrapping.

Common Generated-UI Mistakes

• Treating any grid of cards as a collection without collection identity or membership behavior.
• Mixing search results, recommendations, recent history, saved items, and editorial links under one collection heading.
• Letting filters or sorts mutate collection membership without an explicit save step.
• Hiding permission-limited or unavailable items without explaining count differences.
• Using collection when a maintained category taxonomy would better help discovery.
• Making Delete collection, Remove item, and Clear filter look equivalent.
• Copying a collection without clarifying ownership, permissions, and edit independence.
• Depending on drag and drop for reordering without keyboard controls.

Critique Questions

• What makes this set a collection rather than a list, category, recommendation, search result, or related-links block?
• Who owns the collection and who can view, edit, copy, share, or delete it?
• Is membership manual, criteria-driven, editorial, imported, permission-limited, or generated?
• What happens to total count, visible count, and selected items after filtering, sorting, and permission changes?
• Can users distinguish removing an item from deleting the whole collection or clearing the current view?
• Does the ordering communicate a recommended sequence, manual priority, recency, or arbitrary layout?