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Dos and Don'ts

This topic summarizes the UX guidelines in a very brief form. See the specific topics in the UX guidelines for the full story.

What you should do

Recommendations for what you should do:

  • Identify the user’s tasks and focus on them. Remember that it is all about the user.

  • Provide overviews. The Role Center, chart panes, and Activities all help users understand key business information quickly.

  • Use progressive disclosure when it is possible. For example, provide FactBoxes with high-level summaries that can be drilled into instead of putting all the detailed information on a page.

  • One task, one page. Everything a user needs for a given task should be on one page, but not necessarily in the same level of detail.

  • Clear the clutter. Help the user focus by removing information that is irrelevant to the given task.

  • Reduce search time. Give users what they need in each context. FactBoxes are good for this.

  • Use visual cues instead of text when possible. Icons and Cues are quicker to scan than text.

  • Think about how a user works. Arrange FastTabs and other elements in the order that they are typically used.

What you should not do

Recommendations for what you should avoid:

  • Don’t structure the navigation pane according to application modules. This will require users to waste time jumping between modules.

  • Don’t attempt to fit too much into the Role Center. An overview stops being an overview if there is a scrollbar, or if there are too many details presented.

  • Don’t mimic the database table boundaries when you design pages. Typically users will want to see details joined from several tables.

  • Don’t fill pages with information that “might be relevant”. Remove fields and actions for the user profiles that do not need them.

  • Don't include more than two lists on one page. Instead, show read-only lists in FactBoxes or show a FactBox with record counts that open additional lists.

See Also

Concepts

Designing Great User Experiences
Customization: Configuration and Personalization
User Interface Design Guidelines