User Interface.

[Kevin]

I am personally HMI (Human Machine Interface) challenged! Since I have spent most of my career working with 'Back Office' applications. Since my usual interfaces are minimal at best and usually "Dock Panel" style (hence prior post). I would very much appreciate any information pointing to interfaces created in RR that contain CRM (Customer Relationship Management) information. I have been researching and found many Apple OSX applications using a pattern evolving pallet stacks (basically as views to various categories of information based on the currently loaded record) this seems busy and confused those in the test group.

Any assistance would be appreciated,
Kevin

[Mark]

Hi Kevin,

Do you have any pictures of what you want?

Best,

Mark

[Kevin]

This is what I built in Win32 not sure it still applies especially since it would not be multi-platform. It is a SDI applications that uses a "Dock Panel" I created to display "Views" that can bee added Maximized, Closed dynamically by the users personal defaut layout.


Kevin

[Kevin]

I do not believe this is valid today since so much has changed in user expectation. Problem is most CRM applications used a similar interface (SAP etc.) it is unfortunate.

[FourthWorld]

Rather than adhere to the older MCI convention, you can deliver similar benefits in a more modern look using groups with splitter controls, a la Outlook.

[Kevin]

So, primary views are accessed via either the Main Menu -> View or a "Explorer Bar" supplemental information would be displayed via palette stacks and input "New" item via "Input" stacks. Right? Please excuse the description I do not use Microsoft Office products often. I have seen a similar implementation used in "Great Plains" based on the role given to a particular user it seemed to be intuitive for the accounting professionals using it.

FYI:
I only posted the original implementation image as a reference to what the current user base is currently acclimated to. This is by no means to lead or influence any suggestions given. I am posting here to brain storming with those in RR community. My hope is to benefit from the many graduates of the RR "Programmers School of Hard Knocks".

[Mark]

Hi Kevin,

I have some experience creating CRM's and I noticed how quickly a screen can become a mess. I think that trying to mimic those old "back office" programmes would be a good idea. You can still make them look better than the monochrome or 4-color applications of those days.

I would use one stack/window with groups. You can fake a title bar in each group and use that to show and hide groups. For example, you can put a small triangle into the "title bar" to collapse or expand the group. You might also group all groups on your card and give this last group scrollbars. Splitter controls to make groups smaller and larger look nice, but they slow down work and make no sense with a keyboard.

One of the biggest problems is that you might lose a lot of screen space by putting margins between the fields. I believe it is helpful to make fields and text a little larger than the default size in RunRev and try to create an interface without margines between fields.

For everything else, you can use native, good-looking controls, such as buttons and progress bars. I would try to make everything accessible through the keyboard.

Best,

Mark

[Kevin]

I appreciate all the assistance and will keep moving along trying different interfaces to see what is a success with my users.

Kevin

[RRobert]

I agree with Richard. "...you can deliver similar benefits in a more modern look using groups with splitter controls, a la Outlook."

Robert