Making small changes with a big difference

Don’t listen to what the user says, look at what the user does

I don’t think I can say I have designed the perfect user experience on the first iteration, there is always something, whether it’s a workflow that a particular user feels is rough or a specific colour that is off.

User experience is a finicky thing, and the big problem is that users need help explaining what it is that is really what they want. I’ve always pushed the idea that observing the user running through their workflow from start to finish, and picking up the small details is always better. Are they hesitating, frustrated, confident, or all of the above?

We look for these subtle changes because a good user experience is something the user does not realise. You think about how often you swipe notifications away, tap on buttons or click on X to close a window, these are all examples of interactions that do not explicitly state what they do, yet we know what to expect.

This is an example of external consistency, there is no point in reinventing the wheel, that only trips up users. We want to make use of their prior experiences as a foundation for the experience that you have created, whether that is a Salesforce page layout or a web2lead form. A good user experience is one that seamlessly integrates into their daily experience.

Let us consider a simple scenario, Tim is heading to work by car, and he encounters a red traffic light and knows to stop and wait for the green light to go. When he reaches work, he sits down opens his laptop and proceeds to answer an online form. At the end of the long and mundane form, he is completely over it and mindlessly clicks the green button which was the cancel button.

Now you are probably thinking to yourself, he should’ve read the text of the button before clicking. While you are correct, we can’t assume this of every user. This is where two good UX choices come into play:

• The form should have utilised external consistency and considered previous experiences by making a positive action green and a negative action red.
• Include a confirmation button or second step for a destructive action (a potentially significant action).

This scenario is a simple and obvious example but situations like this do happen.

How your Salesforce changes improve workflow

Now let us relate this to Salesforce, while we cannot change the look of components or some aspects of the user interface, we can design our page layouts with some structure. Consider how your fields can be grouped, utilising Salesforce paths to guide users in creating records, and add help/descriptions to further hint to users the expected content.

This can be especially important when moving your users from another platform. You want to take that chance to reflect on the current workflow, what makes it tick and what your users are used to. Having a familiar process that builds on the user’s past experiences and expectations leads to higher user adoption, thusly less resistance to the changes.

All of these small changes together can make a big impact on the integrity of data in your system and reduce the confusion experienced by your users.

How DataColada takes advantage of good user-centric design

Here at DataColada, we focus on discovering the client’s needs but not forgetting to delve deeper into the business process and make suggestions. From these insights, we can make better decisions for a streamlined implementation without compromising on data, workflow, or security.

We think about not just inside the Salesforce environment, but also the connected data entry points, your client-facing applications, and what your users go through on a typical day-to-day flow. A good design focuses on the user, building on their experiences leading to a smoother transition to new features and changes.

Check out our customer stories or contact us and see how we can help you.