Designing A User Interface

[Anon]

I've been given the job of creating a small order entry system in PHP and MySQL. I need some help with the user interface.

There are any number of stock items, and each stock item belongs to a category. On an order I need to allow the user to enter as many details lines (stock code and qty). What's a good way to achieve this?

I could just display 10 detail lines consisting of drop-down lists and input boxes, but that would restrict the user to 10 items per order. The average order will probably be somewhere between 1 and 10 items, but some people may order more.

Does anyone have an example that I can look at that shows how this can be handled? I don't need to see any code, just an example.

[Anon]

I don't have an example to show you but why don't you just put 2 buttons at the bottom of the 10 items. 1 to submit all entered items, and another to "add more" items to the list. Then you could show all entered items above your form, and the user could enter as many as she wanted, just hitting "add more" when she fills up 10 and needs more.

[kparker]

I think a lot depends on how well-known the items (and their identifying part numbers or whatever) are to the target audience. Consider Amazon and many other online sellers: the site is organized around making it easy to find items of interest. Once you've located something, you just click on "Add to Cart" and the cart itself is somewhat incidental until you're ready to check out.