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From a design and usability perspective is it best that an edit page mimics the layout of the view page?
Our view page is very dense. The data is tightly packed together, but when editing there are going to be extra controls next to each entry field. If we leave the layout the same it will be overly crowded. Will this cause problems with usability if the fields are rearranged?
It definitely impairs usability. Two hazards of re-arranging fields are:
These problems are exacerbated on high-density pages.
There are some times when this is ok. The best example I can think of is where the editor and viewer are different users. Another (more ambiguous) case is a situation where the edit screen needs to be highly optimized for fast throughput.
If possible, you might consider splitting the screen up, or making collapsable regions to give the user (and the screen) a little room to breathe.