Holiday ahead.. and so a off-topic post. 


The stages in designing 3D styled icon.

















and finally...



:-) Happy holidays

A quick share.

I am thinking of an UI enhancement, which will help an admin to see the list of add-ons that are enabled/disabled for a particular user in Setup > General > Users > Account Information. The current Account Information UI shows only the information sections.





I'd like to gather if a UI enhancement like the one shown below could help or not? :-)





Description :
The top header (in light yellow shade) displays name, email, Role, Profile, Active status and Last login time. Below this, the add-ons list is shown. The list contains 3 columns, one for the add-on name , one for the number of licenses available and the other one for Enabling / Disabling an add-on. The rest of the information that follows are : User Information, Address and Locale (exists in current UI)


PS:
I used an old template to build this mock. So, pls ignore the breadcrumb - "Settings > Advanced > Users > John doe".

White board is a great tool to draw and evaluate flow diagrams. The larger the board is - the better the flow capture is. There is another advantage of using large white boards - SAVING PAPER. Earlier I used to draw the storyboards in paper with a pencil. Many complex flows are not easy to capture in a single paper even if you use a bigger size papers. Also when discussing the flow with others, changes to be made required certain amount of time (erasing the pencil sketch and re-sketching etc).

Then I started using a big white board and found it saves time and doing a storyboard became quicker than ever. It was easier to modify the sketches during discussion. To archive them, I use my phone camera to capture it and transfer to my computer.



What you are seeing in the above picture is the finalized process flow - storyboard of a new Zoho CRM feature, which is under discussion and evaluation. :-)

Rajesh Sundaram
UX - Zoho CRM

A little off-topic today :-)

Smart Touch phones have taken the mobile phone world by storm. People find them easy to use than tapping some tiny buttons in the traiditonal phones. Phone experience is quicker and easier than before.

Recently I felt that it is time to change my 4 year old mobile phone which is a traditional candy-bar with numeric keypad and a good display. I searched for touch phones that are available in the market now and found almost every major manufacturer have a good portfolio of touch phones in their product lines. Intrigued by the recent advent of phone OS and apps, I started evaluating models on the following aspects :

1. Phone OS
2. Display Size & Resolution
3. Connectivity (WiFi, BT, EDGE, 3G)
4. Multimedia (Photo, Video, Music)
5. Performance
6. App support

Every manufacturer offers touch phones ranging from Budget to premium models. The budget phones runs on the the propreitary tweaked software to use "touch" as a primary interaction method. Some have features crippled to make them into budget phones. It is the mid-range models and premium models that truly appeals, and  offers some value in terms of productivity. It all ties to the OS and its ability to support apps. So for me, OS is a major deciding factor.

Today there are 3 major OSs that takes the lion's share in the touch phone OS (with apps support) market. One is older, but does not have much app support. The second was a instant hit and currently leads that market with loads of apps. The third was introduced little recently and is gaining share, as well as coming up with apps. My first choice of OS, a leading touch phone and also a pioneer in touch, was good in the above 6 aspects, but the price factor is a hiccup also it is tied with regional service providers in India. The second choice of OS, seems to be the facing some hard-times, because only recently, major manufacturers started supporting it. One manufacturer recently introduced a mid-range model with this OS. Comparatively it is a much better model in terms of OS, Display, Apps and multimedia. But alas, the phone has not hit the shelves in Chennai. Might take a couple of weeks it seems. I've decided to wait and get this one.

When it comes to mobile phone and productivity, I must admit that I expect the phone to do everything. I want to read my mails, access facebook, tweet, access crm, set tasks and assign to my team, edit documents, use spreadsheets, and even watch movies and listen to music. Adding to the list are - photo and video shooting. In short, I want my phone to replace my desktop / laptop. The way the mobile phone market converges is very promising. The day is not too far away, where people spend more time with their mobile phone, than with their desktops / laptops.

Slightly off topic to CRM. Anyway, here goes.

Achieving a good design is essential for all physical devices too. Apart from visual aesthetics, it is the usable design which makes a product successful. Recently I bought a plastic toilet soap trayr and replaced the old broken one in my bathroom. The soap tray hangs with the help of two nails on walls. By design the holder has space for two soaps.

After fixing that, I placed a soap on one side and the holder lifted on the opposite side. Oops. I pressed the tray firmly again and it seemed to fit in place. Then this morning, when I tried to pick the soap, it lifted again on the other side.I pressed it again. After a few minutes when I picked the soap, one end lifted off completely and the whole tray started hanging.


(a quick diagram to explain the problem and solution.)



On the careful observation, I noted the problem is with the design of nail travel gap. The height was just barely enough (1 cm appx) for a nail to slide on. So when weight was placed on one side, the other side lifts up slightly, and during quick handling the tray lifts up completely and dislocates.

I can think about two quick solutions to this design problem.

1. Increasing the height of nail gap. So that even the tray lifts up a little, it does not slip out completely.
2. Altering the design, so that instead of sliding the tray over two nails, it can be screwed to the wall using a screw with washer design.

So what do you think? any innovative ideas?

So how about doing a little collaborative excercise? We invite all those who are interested, to take part in designing an icon for "Quotes" / "Quotations". Currently the icon we use for "Quotes" is - a couple of papers printed with a "$" symbol . But for those who do not deal with "$" currency, this may not seem fit. So we are proposing a design change in that icon, that is understood by most of the users.

When does a Quote is raised?
When the seller was asked to give a formal price quote for a product. Usually asked by the potential buyer.

What is done at Seller's end?
Traditionally, the seller calculates his best price and prints it formally on a paper and handover or send to the potential buyer.

Our proposal:
How about a paper and a calculator as icon? something as shown below. This is more of a rough sketch. Let us know your feedback. If you think a Quotes can be better represented in other ways, feel free to share.


A seed idea. We sketched this on a board and shot it.




The existing one :



Changes? suggestions? ideas for improvement? Please share. We love to hear it from our users.


Rajesh
UX-Zoho CRM

This is something about the fear-factor in people, restricting them to be over-cautious and prevents them from proceeding further.

The Router problem
This morning I took my broadband router to my area service provider's office. Recently the router was behaving erratic and I was asked by the customer support executive to get it exchanged at their office, nearest to my place.

Update Firmware
After checking the Router, the officer suggested me that flashing the firmware should fix the issue. Then he connected the router to his computer and accessed the router's control panel. By this time he dialled another engineer who was instructing him on how to flash the Router. This officer started reading out the links displayed in the monitor and the engineer on the other side instructed him to click relevant links. I understood that the officer is new to this and without the engineer, he is of no use.

The User Interface
The modem's Firmware update UI displayed a simple screen filled with instructions grouped in a step-by-step manner. So Step 1 instructed the user about how a flashing is done, how long it might take etc. At Step 4, there was a file selection textbox with "Browse" button, and a "Update Firmware" button displayed below. The officer promptly clicked the Browse button and selected the Firmware file from his Windows Desktop. He explained his actions to the engineer over the phone and it seems the Engineer couldnt remember what to do next, or he doesnt remember whether a Button is displayed or link is displayed etc.

Instead of clicking the "Update Firmware" button, the officer was reading out all the instructions and the clueless engineer was unable to help him over the phone. To make it worse, the officer did the entire process once again. I was watching all this and when I suggested him to click the "Update Firmware" button he was hesistant to do so. I quickly understood that the officer had the classic "fear factor" which prevents people from doing a new thing. And looking at the User interface I could clearly see what the problem is and how to fix the issue.

Problem:
The page heading and the button had the same text "Update Firmware". And, lack of clear instructions. So the officer had assumed the "Update Firmware" button to be a - heading displayed in a rectangle box redundantly in the bottom of the UI. So he had ignored the button and told the engineer that he is seeing "Update Firmware" everywhere. And the engineer was clueless then.



Solution:
Introducing a Step 5 saying "Now click the button below to start Firmware update" and showing the "Update Firmware" button there would have solved the issue.


Observations & Conclusion:
People generally refrain from clicking buttons or exploring or even reading contents that are new to them, or not familiar to them. It is the fear-factor, "what if I click the wrong button, or my action produces unwanted results?". This is a challenge in User Interface design. Wizard or Step-by-Step approaches should cover till the final action to be done. Just because of a simple instruction left out, the whole user experience had become terrible.

A good user friendly User Interface should hide that fear factor and must encourage the user to engage with it. It should also provide an option to roll-back any changes made. Only by creating such "cushion" feeling, a user-interface can make people to use it without any fear.

---

I am willing to know if this idea might help the novices and newbies to setup CRM quickly. Feel free to share your thoughts and opinons here.

A small Intro:
A kickstart helper / Wizard process which will guide you to setup or customize Zoho CRM to match your business model. This kickstart helper will have generalized pre-designed packages. For example, CRM for Retailers, CRM for Services offered, CRM for Telemarketing etc. These packages can be used as a "Starting point" to further customize for one's exact needs. This could be called as "The Quick Launch Way".

Where will this appear?
The very next screen, once you sign up and select an edition.

Why?
To save a good amount of time customizing CRM. I estimate a  20% to 30% savings in time.

So what if you like doing the configurations by yourself from scratch (The Do-It-Yourself way)?
Great. You can always skip the "Quick Launch Way" and proceed ahead.

A rough diagram to give you some idea:





If you wish to share your ideas directly, mail me rajeshsundaram (at) zohocorp (dot) com

Rajesh
UX-Zoho CRM

Starting with Copy Customization (the new feature introduced recently) we will be introducing a "How it works" section in all major modules. This is a 3 part comic-style explanatory splash which will give a brief idea about the current module / feature.

Given below is a screenshot of HIW shown in Copy Customization page. :-)




- Rajesh Sundaram

A new feature which helps to navigate to previous records has been introduced. This feature allows you to move to and fro, while viewing the details of a Lead, Contact, Potential etc.

Based on the feedback, we are planning to improve this feature.



- Rajesh Sundaram