Lookups are an area of the Salesforce application that are very powerful, but have also been very frustrating for our users -- and one that the User Experience team has wanted to tackle for a long time.

After observing users struggle to find the right record, speaking to them about how they need lookups to work for their organization, and combing through dozens of excellent IdeaExchange comments and suggestions, we went back to the drawing board.

Today we present a prototype that demonstrates some proposed enhancements to lookups. The new features include:

• Auto-Complete - As you type into a lookup field, a list of matching values appears below the field. The list can include an extra column of data to help you differentiate items with the same name.

• Filtering based on dependencies - Both the auto-complete list and the dialog offer results that are pre-filtered based on values of related page fields. For example, if you have entered an account into a lookup field and move to a contact lookup field, that field will automatically offer contacts that are associated to the selected account.
• Result paging, sorting, and filtering - Just like regular sidebar search results, you can page through the full results list, sort the results by clicking on the column headings, and filter the results list to further refine your list of matches.
• Customizable columns - The lookups results list provides column customization which allows you to select the columns that you would like to display in the results list.
• Overlay dialog - We've removed the pop-up window and replaced it with an in-line overlay.

We welcome any feedback you may have. Please leave your comments!

To try out the new features, go here and follow the guide on the left hand side of the page. Please use Firefox 2.0.0.x to access the prototype. Keep in mind that since this is a prototype, some features are not functional and others may be 'glitchy'.