title: What are some good UX web designs for selecting multiple items and performing an action
body: <p>I'm working on redesigning a web interface to provide the same functionality it has currently but with easier use via good UX design. Currently, here is what the design looks like:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z7O5C.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z7O5C.png" alt="Current Design"></a></p>
  
  <p>I'm less worried about the tofu look and feel, that can come later, I want to nail the UX functionality first. The idea here in this tab is the user can select the items via a checkbox and perform the actions in the "I Want To" drop down (which opens different modal dialogs depending on the action). The 3 dot ellipsis on the right of the items in the list allow the user to perform the same actions via another drop down control, with the idea that they use the top drop down to perform the actions on multiple items, the ellipsis three dot menu for one item. </p>
  
  <p>The obnoxious part of this control is that the list could contain hundreds of items, and the check box takes too much precision to check quickly. The user would select which items they would like to perform the actions on sequentially, then have to scroll up to the top of the page to select the action. This could be 5 seconds of scrolling, which I find obnoxious. I want to develop a good UX pattern to provide the same functionality in less clicks, scrolling, and frustration. </p>
  
  <p>My inital idea was to provide a floating action button. The user could then * somehow * (I haven't thought of an idea yet, at minimum at least a bigger check box) select multiple items then pick what they want to do via the floating action button which is always within the bounds of the screen instead of the horrible scroll back to the top (I don't think a "scroll to top" button is a good solution for this either).</p>
  
  <p>So I need some recommendations on a UX pattern or some general suggestions on how to make this process less frustrating for users. I'm a fan of material design right now, but I'm open to any suggestions, material design guides don't seem to have any paradigms for something like this.</p>