When you use a Computer Application or Programmes you rely on your knowledge of how these systems work and a commonly accepted layout and naming convention. These layouts and arrangements are collectively know as a “User Interface” (often shortened to “UI”) to programmers like ourselves here at ProcessIT. The Importance of a “User Interface” or UI cannot be over emphasised as without it you would not be able to efficiently get your work done to meet your objective. Some systems have better and more efficient layouts than others, and the good ones become a pleasure to use, while the bad ones are frustrating, annoying and waste time.

A key focus in developing our Custom Software is ensuring that we create an intuitive user interface or Layout thus making it easy and intuitive to use our Application with minimal learning and training. We have blogged before about finetuning some screen layouts and the significant time savings these have made for our clients. Read our Visual Efficiency Post.

How Bad can it be?

However earlier this month I received a link to a web site that had me in hysterics! I could not stop laughing and my sides hurt too. Why you ask? Because a clever developer in Belgium had taken the time to do just the opposite of what we try to do  – he had built an awkward site! Why? As “a challenging exploration of user interactions and design patterns.”

What’s the Site?

It’s a play on the name and is known as User In Yer Face! Check it out here: https://userinyerface.com/ and let me know if you can finish the challenge…

This site shows the Importance of a “User Interface” or UI and how bad it can be. It contains many of the things that beginners in design use, including intense colours, poor colour contrast and annoying popups, to name just a few. If you try it, I would love to hear your thoughts on the most annoying feature (or should that be error?). Just reply to this newsletter or use the Contact Us page.

What is a good UI like?

While there is probably no such thing as a perfect UI for everyone, we have spent considerable time recently enhancing LEADS our Sales Growth and Customer Relationship Manager application. One important intuitive feature is standard Microsoft Office compatibility, with common shortcut keys and a “Microsoft Office Fluent user interface” or Ribbon at the top of the screen to control primary application functions.

Simplified Search.

We have created a new simplified search screen, based on the common searches for your Contacts Names or Company / Business Name:

While still retaining the fine detailed selection option that are displayed only when you click +More Search. This Eliminates the momentary distraction of the additional boxes making it quicker and easier to locate your required result.

We have also adjusted key Status information to display on a bar on the Left of the Screen, where the eye tends to focus, thus improving speed of browsing. LEADS now is more Left Dominant with the most relevant information on the Top Left and decreasing in importance as you go down the page and move right.

Our continuing focus on the importance of a “User Interface” or UI will show as we are continuously improving LEADS, so if you try it and have any suggestions for improvement, we would love to hear these, we are likely to implement them in a future release, because while ProcessIT uses LEADS extensively, we are committed to supporting the needs of you – our end users… You can post them to us via LEADs feedback screen or use the Contact Us page.

Key fields are Automatically Coloured to give at a glance performance information without having to read the detail.

Tech Tip – Office 2010 End of Life

Most, if not all, of Microsoft products have a shelf life, where support is provided including software updates, security fixes, bug fixes and user technical support, and Office 2010 is no exception.

On October 13, 2020, Microsoft support for Office 2010 will cease and any applications or databases that are reliant on this version of Office to function may be at risk of becoming functionally invalid and security holes could be taken advantage of.

If you are running an older Microsoft Access Database built in or supported by an Office 2010 license, then it would be a good time to plan for an upgrade to both your Database and likely Office.

Newer versions of Microsoft Office include Office 365, Office 356 ProPlus and Office 2013, Office 2016 and Office 2019.

Access Databases are an active part of the Office 365 and Office 2019 suite and generally can be converted without issue. Some databases may not need converting but before deploying Office 365, you may want to test your business-critical VBA macros, third-party add-ins, and complex documents and spreadsheets to assess their compatibility with Office 365.

Let us know if you have an old Access database or Excel Workbook that you wish to have updated or compatibility tested with the newer versions of Office. We can also help modernise the look and fell and of course improve the User Interface!

Until next time…

Regards,
    Brian Henderson & James Dickinson