Area Page User Experience Guidelines

Article
11/07/2012

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

An area page is a Microsoft Dynamics AX navigation page that displays menu items that link to list pages, content pages, forms, reports, classes, jobs, and queries. The area page is part of the navigation layer of the Microsoft Dynamics AX user experience.

Example of an area page

Example of area page Example of an area page

The area page is a landing page for users when they click an application module button in the Navigation Pane. Each application module of Microsoft Dynamics AX must have an area page.

Overview

An area page consists of menus and menu items.

Area page menus

The area page is comprised of a set of six top-level menus available to (but not required by) all application modules in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

These menus group the various submenus and menu item. In Microsoft Dynamics AX, the following menus are displayed for the area page:

Common – Displays the most commonly used menu items for an application module. Most menu items on this menu are designed for users to quickly find a record or group of records and then to perform an action against those records. Each list page for primary entities and primary forms that do not have list pages for an application module should be included on this menu.

Note

We recommend that you provide navigation to a list page within multiple application modules whenever that makes sense. For example, the Customers list page should be found in both the Accounts receivable application module and the Sales and marketing application module because accounts receivable users will look for customers in Accounts receivable, and sales people will look for customers in Sales and marketing.

Common menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Common menu for the “Accounts payable” application module
Journals – Displays menu items that provide access to forms that are used for interacting with journals. Journal is a standard accounting term that refers to the register that is used to record the financial consequences of business events in an accounting system. A journal details which transactions occurred and which accounts were affected.

Journals menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Journals menu for the “Accounts payable” application module
Inquiries – Displays menu items that provide access to forms that are used for inquiry. An inquiry is designed to enable read-only access to information for search and analysis within the system so that a user does not have to generate a traditional report.

Note

Try to minimize the number of new inquiries that you create. Before creating an inquiry form, consider creating a list page or a secondary list page that displays the information. List pages provide more interactions options than an inquiry form does.

Inquiries menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Inquiries menu for the “Accounts payable” application module
Reports – Displays menu items that provide access to the reports for an application module.

Reports menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Reports menu for the “Accounts payable” application module
Periodic – Displays menu items that provide access to forms that are usually used periodically, often for bulk updates to a set of records. They appear on the Periodic menu because they are usually performed at regular intervals of time, such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Note

Try to minimize the number of new periodic forms that you create. If a list page exists for an entity, add the periodic task as an action on the list page instead of as a separate form.

Periodic menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Periodic menu for the “Accounts payable” application module
Setup – Displays menu items that provide access to forms that are used to maintain the general setup of features related to an application module.

Setup menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

Setup menu for the “Accounts payable” application module

The items that appear in the Navigation Pane and on the area page are generated from the menu items in the Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Object Tree (AOT). These items operate as navigation links that users use to access the features in the application module.

The menu item is displayed as a link to the associated item in the AOT. Clicking a menu item opens the list page, the form, or the report. A list page opens inline in the main application window. A form or a report opens in a separate task window over the area page.

Guidelines

The following sections describe the guidelines for an area page.

Grouping

Because a menu may have many menu items, the menu items often have to be grouped in submenus.
If there are more than 3 related menu items on a menu with more than 10 menu items, it is best to group them in a submenu.
Submenus should be of the same approximate granularity. When a user looks across groups, menus should have the same level of detail. Menu names should reflect the contents on the menu.

If the forms contained in the group are closely related, consider building a single form by using the Table of Contents User Experience Guidelines (TOC) pattern that encapsulates all of the functionality. It is easier for users to understand a single concept in the navigation and easier for them to swap between the contents of a TOC than to move between entries in the navigation.
Submenus may be required for complex sets of menu items. We recommend that you do not go more than two levels deep with submenus.

Ordering

Menu items should be arranged in a business process or dependency order. For example, Sales quotations should precede Sales orders in the Sales and marketing Common area.
Items in the Setup area should be arranged in dependency order. For example, Category groups should precede Categories.
Menus items should be ordered consistently between the different menus.
If there is no obvious process or dependency order, menus and menu items should be arranged by frequency of use.

Menu items that are specific to a country or region should be grouped under a submenu with the name of the country or region. The name of the menu item should not include the name of the country or region unless it cannot be included in a submenu. In this case, the name of the country or region can be added in parentheses.

Correct examples

Tax reports (Spain)

Sales tax by customer (Belgium)

Incorrect examples

Spanish tax reports

Belgian sales tax by customer

Withholding tax - Thailand

Correct examples
Tax reports (Spain)
Sales tax by customer (Belgium)

Incorrect examples
Spanish tax reports
Belgian sales tax by customer
Withholding tax - Thailand

Labels and text

This section contains labels and text guidelines for menus and tooltips that appear on an area page.

General guidelines

The names of menu items should be concise while offering enough information to allow users to understand what will happen when they click the link. Proper naming will make it easy for users to choose between the multiple items.

In general, menu names should be plural nouns and aligned to the name of the form or report to which they provide access. A slash mark (/) should not be included in the name of submenu or menu items to indicate a choice such as and/or. The appropriate conjunction should be used instead: and or or. Exceptions to this guideline include the following terms: client/server, read/write, country/region, and ZIP/postal code.

Correct examples

Price and discount groups

Calculation and approval statuses

Requests for quotes by item or vendor
Punctuation should not be included in the name of a submenu or menu item.

Incorrect examples

Consolidation – import

Recalculation, actual costs

Journal names: Inventory
All other UI text guidelines for casing, font, and other typographical aspects apply.

Correct examples
Price and discount groups
Calculation and approval statuses
Requests for quotes by item or vendor

Incorrect examples
Consolidation – import
Recalculation, actual costs
Journal names: Inventory

Common and Journals menus

Submenu and menu item names should be plural nouns.

Correct examples

Unconfirmed purchase orders

Invoice registrations

Payment transfers

Picking lists
If singular nouns appear as submenu or item names, they should be recast as tasks. For example, Cleanup should be recast as Cleanup tasks; and Conversion should be recast as Conversion tasks.

Correct examples
Unconfirmed purchase orders
Invoice registrations
Payment transfers
Picking lists

Periodic menu

Submenu and menu item names should be nouns.

Correct examples

Ledger period recalculation

Fixed asset reclassification

Online consolidation
If verb phrases appear as submenu or item names, they should be recast. For example, Create prenotes should be recast as Prenote creation.

Correct examples
Ledger period recalculation
Fixed asset reclassification
Online consolidation

Inquiries menu

Submenu and menu item names should be plural nouns.

Correct examples

Promissory notes

Raw registrations

Absence statistics
If singular nouns appear as submenu or item names, they should be recast. For example, Workflow history should be recast as Workflow histories.

Correct examples
Promissory notes
Raw registrations
Absence statistics

Reports menu

Submenu and menu item names should be plural nouns.

Correct examples

Campaigns

Greenhouse gas emissions

Vendor requests
If singular nouns appear as submenu or item names, they should be recast. For example, Workflow tracking should be recast as Initiated workflows; Alert tracking should be recast as Notifications.

Correct examples
Campaigns
Greenhouse gas emissions
Vendor requests

Setup menu

Submenu and menu item names should be nouns.
The plural form of the noun should be used for submenus and for menu items that open forms for maintaining reference data or master data. If you are setting up a singular component or process, use the singular form of the noun.

Correct examples

Organizations

Data crawler

Vendor management
The submenu and menu item names should not include the following words: maintain, manage, setup, set up.

Correct examples
Organizations
Data crawler
Vendor management

Tooltips labels and text

Tooltips should provide additional information for users to understand what will happen when they click a menu item.
In general, tooltips should be sentences in the imperative mood (the implicit subject is you).
A tooltip should not include end punctuation.

Correct examples

Open balance journals

Generate report on open purchase orders

View list of opportunities

Set up product dimension groups

Incorrect examples

Opens the balance journals.

Shows a summary of the open purchase orders

Create and maintain a list of opportunities.

Configuration of product dimension groups
The object of the predicate should be a plural noun describing the entity to which it provides access. Modifiers such as “the”, “a”, and “this” between the verb and the object should be avoided.

Correct examples
Open balance journals
Generate report on open purchase orders
View list of opportunities
Set up product dimension groups

Incorrect examples
Opens the balance journals.
Shows a summary of the open purchase orders
Create and maintain a list of opportunities.
Configuration of product dimension groups

Common and Journals menu

The verb "Open" should be used with a plural noun representing the entity that is accessed for menu items that open a new form containing the entities. The verb phrase "Open a list of" should be used if the menu item navigates to a list page containing the entities.

Correct examples

Open purchase journals

Open list of invoice registrations

Open list of payment transfers

Open picking lists

Correct examples
Open purchase journals
Open list of invoice registrations
Open list of payment transfers
Open picking lists