I know that this is a forum for programmers (not designers) but UX decisions are often left to us. So I am asking you guys/gals:
Has anyone come across a good paradigm for presenting two lists of information to the user for the user to match up?
I am not looking for a control or pre-built solution per se (though examples would be great) or even a real concrete design. I am just looking for ideas of how to present it to the users.
We are talking about two very long lists (thousands of records) where there is a one to one relationship between some (but not all) records in the two lists, and the user needs to match them up.
I was about to post exactly the same question. In my case I need to match circa 1500 textual records (but not 1:1). What I am currently thinking about is to show to lists sorted in such a way that already matched elements can be connected by straight lines without crossing. Above both lists I will put textbox which will allow to filter the list according to entered keywords. To match elements the user will perform a gesture similar to drag&drop or drawing an arrow. To remove a matching user will click an arrow.