User Experience Blog
User Experience Blog - Customer Feedback
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User Feedback Matters: How our users inspired the design of Data Categories
Nov 11, 2009In this second post in the series, User Feedback Matters (see our first post), we will tell you about how customer feedback impacted a brand new Salesforce feature, Data Categories.
Last year, Salesforce acquired an on-premise Knowledge Management application and tasked several product teams with its redesign and implementation on the Salesforce platform. A key part of the existing Knowledge Management application was the ability to create data category hierarchies that allow administrators to classify knowledge articles and help users find the specific records they are looking for. The Data Categories team was created with the goal of redesigning and moving this functionality onto our platform.
Step 1: Understanding the Needs of Knowledge Managers
We conducted multiple interviews with our existing Knowledge Management customers to understand how they used the existing application and to learn what they liked and disliked about it. They mentioned that managing categories in the current application required too many clicks and that the hierarchy of data categories was not as clearly represented as they would like.Step 2: Customer Evaluation
We iterated on several design concepts based on feedback from our customer interviews until we arrived at a promising design. This design included some new interaction and layout patterns that would need more validation. To validate our designs, we conducted 2 rounds of usability sessions [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability_test]. The sessions included administrators of the current Knowledge Management application as well as Salesforce administrators who hadn't used the Knowledge Management product. The first session focused on validating the overall design concept and the second session focused on more detailed interactions in the design. You can see the results below.
What We Tested 1st Round What We Did 2nd Round What We Did Two-pane layout and hierarchy structure Users found this intuitive Terminology It wasn't clear that "Category Type" meant a container for categories Changed "Category Type" to "Category Group" The new label was clear to users Deleting categories Users misinterpreted the messaging and assumed they were deleting both the category and the records associated with it Adjusted the message to more clearly indicate that records wouldn't be deleted but would be moved to the parent category Users now understood the message but wanted more control over where the records would be moved to Added another step after the delete confirmation giving users different options to re-categorize the records Drag and Drop Drag and drop functionality was not discoverable Added visual aid to highlight drag and drop capability It wasn't clear to users where in the hierarchy they were dragging and dropping a category Revised drag and drop target indicator to highlight the exact location that the category is being moved to Keyboard Shortcuts Users found keyboard shortcuts easy to use Users had difficulty discovering the tips for keyboard shortcuts
Added visual aid to emphasize tips
Based on the feedback from round 2, it looked like the new design was a success:
I think [my staff] would be very pleasantly surprised by this. I think it would make their jobs a lot more efficient.” – Anonymous
Watch the video below to see the final design!
Stay tuned for more stories about how you’ve impacted the user experience of Salesforce!
Would you like to get involved in our user experience program to help improve salesforce.com? Fill out this quick survey or email us at tester@salesforce.com.
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User Feedback Matters: How Our Users Improved Connect for Outlook
Aug 13, 2009User feedback is a huge part of our process here at salesforce.com. We rely on our users’ input every day to help us improve our features. Today, we’d like to kick off a new tradition in the User Experience blog, where we highlight the impact our users have had on the design of Salesforce. In this first post, we’d like to tell you about Connect for Outlook’s functionality for associating Contacts (included in the Winter ‘09 release). The original user interface (UI) required a lot of steps and didn’t help the user prevent or recover from errors (See image below).
Usability testing helped us create an easier to understand, more user-friendly solution. We used an iterative process and conducted 2 rounds of usability testing (with both admins and sales users) to help improve this experience. User feedback was crucial in helping us improve the UI, starting with an initial design (see #1) and resulting in the final design (see #3).
One of the most challenging design issues was how to clearly communicate to users what Contact information was coming from Outlook and syncing to Salesforce. We made many changes to the dialog to help convey this information. Refer to the letters in the image above to help identify changes.
Banner and Icon Changes:
- (A) The salesforce-like visual styling of the banner (see #1) was misleading since the contact was coming from Outlook, not Salesforce. Version #2 restyled this banner, and the final Version #3 incorporated the Name/Company/Manager information as part of the Outlook contact information. These changes helped users better understand the flow of information between the two systems.
- “What am I associating here again? I thought the contact hadn’t been added to Salesforce yet, but the big purple banner makes me think the opposite… I’m confused.” – Anonymous
- (B) Salesforce.com icons were also included in the Status section to visually show that Contacts were being associated to Salesforce.
Other Key Changes:
- (C) Change from dropdown for Association Type to Tabs
- (D) Help text added
- (E) Associate button label changed to ‘OK’
- (F) Quick Create button placed next to SearchAfter multiple iterations, our final design (#3) tested extremely well with users in lab. This was just the start - more exciting changes coming soon to Outlook integration!
Stay tuned for more stories about how you’ve impacted the user experience of Salesforce!Would you like to get involved in our user experience program to help improve salesforce.com? Fill out this quick survey or email us at tester@salesforce.com.
- “What am I associating here again? I thought the contact hadn’t been added to Salesforce yet, but the big purple banner makes me think the opposite… I’m confused.” – Anonymous
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Salesforce and Internet Explorer 6, Part II
Jan 31, 2009It's been a while since we've posted about browser usage, specifically regarding Internet Explorer 6.
Well, IE 6 - and Internet Explorer in general - have been in the news a bit lately. First, Internet Explorer overall is losing browser market share. There are now several great alternative browsers available. Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome are all excellent options that are being pursued by other customers and web users in general. In the last four years, IE's market share has dropped from over 90% to 68%, with the rate of decline accelerating each year due to the introduction of these excellent alternatives.
Second, Google (with their Gmail application), Facebook, and a host of other Web applications have either dropped official support for, or did not release any new features supported in, IE6 in the last year. These recommendations reflect what we at salesforce.com are seeing as well: as a "last generation" browser that will be 8 years old in a few months, IE 6 has fallen far behind other browsers with regard to speed, stability, and security. Of the browsers we support, IE 6 provides the worst user experience for our users on all of these fronts.
At this point, we want to urge all users who are still using IE 6 to consider one of the following changes (in ranked order):
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Option 1: If you have the necessary permissions on your computer, install and use a browser other than Internet Explorer
Salesforce officially supports Mozilla Firefox 3.0.x and Apple Safari 3.x. And while not officially supported, Google Chrome 1.0 seems to work extremely well with our service. All of these browsers are much more standards compliant than Internet Explorer, all are much quicker, and new releases of these browsers - overall - have historically had minimal issues.
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Option 2: If you have the necessary permissions, but you don't want to give up on IE, upgrade to Internet Explorer 7
IE 7 is faster, more reliable, and better supported by Microsoft than IE 6.
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Option 3: If you don't have any control over the
programs installed on your computer, talk with your IT department about
switching to a different browser
We know we have a wide variety of customers - everything from 3-person companies in a garage to multi-national corporations - and understand that many of you have no choice in which browser you use at work. Start engaging the appropriate people in your company now to improve your user experience with Web-based applications.
Please note that we still fully support IE 6 for the features we have today, and will continue to support it through 2009; we will give ample notice to all of our customers before we pursue officially de-supporting IE 6. However, as we release more functionality and features this year, you will begin to see new UI enhancements that will not be fully supported on IE 6.
We want our users to have the fastest, most reliable experience possible every day, and transitioning from IE 6 to a faster and better supported browser - as soon as possible - is a great way to ensure that.
Share and Enjoy.
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Option 1: If you have the necessary permissions on your computer, install and use a browser other than Internet Explorer
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Do you use a screen reader with Salesforce? We would like to talk to you!
Aug 20, 2008Do you know someone who accesses Salesforce using JAWS, Window-Eyes, or other screen reader software? Are you such a person? The User Experience team seeks to connect with individuals who use screen reader software to interact with Salesforce. We are interested in gathering more first-hand knowledge about what makes the experience of using Salesforce with assistive technology (AT) as productive and enjoyable as it can be.
We would like to schedule in-person observations and interviews with qualified participants to see and hear about what's working well and what we can improve. Each participant will receive a gift certificate in appreciation of their time.
If you or someone you know would like to be contacted, send a note to tester@salesforce.com.
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Salesforce and Internet Explorer 6
Jun 17, 2008Today's release of Firefox 3 seemed like a good time to re-raise the issue of browser support and Salesforce.
Back in August 2007, I posted about Salesforce browser usage. At that time, Internet Explorer 6.0 usage represented about 65% of total browser logins, or just about 2 of every 3 users.
Since August, we’ve seen browser usage of our service change fairly dramatically.
You can see that IE7 usage has grown to around one-third of all users. And Firefox 2.0 usage has increased dramatically, to 14% of all users.
You can also see that IE6 usage has dropped a fair amount as users have upgraded or switched browsers. But more than half of all users still use IE6 when accessing Salesforce.
Why do we pay attention to browser usage? One reason is that recently we embarked on efforts to build the next-generation UI of Salesforce, which will include using JavaScript and other technologies that are, frankly, a challenge for IE6 to handle.
In addition to working on next-generation UI, we frequently wrestle with random, difficult-to-reproduce, hard-to-fix bugs in IE6. And while we admittedly love a challenge…working around bugs in older browsers isn't really how we want to spend our time. In fact, investigating and coming up with solutions for bugs that appear only in IE6 robs us of time we would rather spend on new feature development, which is what we love doing and where we believe our customers would also prefer we focus our efforts.
Rest assured, we are not planning to de-support IE6 any time soon. IE6 is still far too heavily used by our customer base, and upgrading to IE7 or switching to another browser is too much to ask in the short-term.
However, as time goes by and more of our users upgrade to IE7 or switch to other browsers like Firefox and Safari, we move closer to the day when we will drop official support for IE6.
Another factor to consider is that Microsoft has already released a beta version of Internet Explorer 8, with a generally available release some time in the next few months (who knows?).
Given all of this, we at salesforce.com have been contemplating how we can move away from IE6 support.
Are we going to de-support IE6 in a single release? No, absolutely not.
But our current thinking is that our next-generation UI enhancements, to be released starting later this year, will not be supported on IE6.
This does not mean you could not use IE6 with Salesforce. However, it would mean that you would not have access to UI enhancements unless you upgraded to IE7 or switched to another supported browser like Firefox or Safari.
Thoughts on this post? If you use IE6, does your company have plans to upgrade its users in the coming year? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
Share and Enjoy,
Jerry Sherman
salesforce.comP.S. With regard to Firefox 3 support: We usually target official support for major browser releases within 90 days of the initial release. Overall, we rarely see critical issues with Firefox, even from one major release to another. (I'm actually using FF3 right now to type this post and am logged into Salesforce in another tab.)
If you decide to try out Firefox 3, you will probably see some minor issues here and there--usually small cosmetic display problems. But in general it should work well with Salesforce. If you see anything more substantial, please tell us!
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Make your voice heard! Participate in product testing!
May 28, 2008We are in constant need of Salesforce users to participate in our testing sessions. You don't even have to leave your desk! We run our sessions using Web conferencing software, so all you need is an internet connection, a phone, and a bit of time to spare. You're even rewarded with a gift card for your time and input.
If you are a Salesforce user and would be interested in helping us out, please fill out the form at http://www.clicktools.com/survey?iv=b4118a9b965b6ef so we can put you on our list! Sessions are typically run during work hours, but we can also accommodate early morning, lunchtime, and after work sessions.
Thanks for helping us to constantly improve Salesforce and make it the best product it can be for you and your business. If you have any questions or concerns, direct them to our research department email address at: tester@salesforce.com.
-- The Salesforce User Experience Team
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Make your voice heard! Participate in product testing! Win an iPhone!
Mar 20, 2008We are in constant need of Salesforce users to participate in our testing sessions. You don't even have to leave your desk! We run our sessions using Web conferencing software, so all you need is an internet connection, a phone, and a bit of time to spare. You're even rewarded with a gift card for your time and input.
If you are a Salesforce user and would be interested in helping us out, please fill out the form at http://www.clicktools.com/survey?iv=b4118a9b965b6ef so we can put you on our list! Sessions are typically run during work hours, but we can also accommodate early morning, lunchtime, and after work sessions.
As a small token of our appreciation for signing up by April 4th, we will enter you into a sweepstakes to win an iPhone!
Thanks for helping us to constantly improve Salesforce and make it the best product it can be for you and your business. If you have any questions or concerns, direct them to our research department email address at: tester@salesforce.com.
-- The Salesforce User Experience Team
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Apple Safari 3.0 and Salesforce
Feb 5, 2008Attention! Apple's Safari 3.0 browser is now officially supported for use with Salesforce
With Apple's recent release of Leopard (MacOS X 10.5) came the GA release of Apple Safari 3.0.
Our QA team recently finished validating Safari 3.0 on MacOS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) for use with Salesforce, and we're happy to announce that we officially support Safari 3.0 on those operating systems.
Unfortunately, Safari 3.0 for Windows is still marked beta, and we have logged several (minor) bugs that we have found in the Windows version of Safari 3.0 but not in the MacOS X version.
However, overall Safari 3.0 on both Windows and MacOS works extremely well with Salesforce. I myself have been using Safari 3.0.4 on Windows XP to log into Salesforce for several weeks now with no problem. And performancewise, it's very snappy.
If you can, give Safari 3.0 a shot.
Share and Enjoy,
Jerry Sherman
The User Experience team -
Are you a Salesforce Developer for your organization?
Jan 11, 2008If so, would you like to participate in usability testing and offer us your feedback?
As a Usability Testing participant, you get to preview new feature designs and have your voice heard while features are still in development. We are testing new Salesforce Developer features on Friday, January 18. If you have 1 hour of time available to participate, please email Usability Tester for more details. If next week won't work for you but you would like to participate in the future, email us anyway and we will add you to our list of usability contacts.
Share and Enjoy!
The Salesforce.com User Experience Team
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Are you a Salesforce Administrator for your organization?
Jan 7, 2008If so, would you like to participate in usability testing and offer us your feedback?
As a Usability Testing participant, you get to preview new feature designs and have your voice heard while features are still in development. We are testing new Salesforce Admin features the week of January 14th. If you have 1 hour of time available to participate any day that week, please email Usability Tester for more details. If next week won't work for you but you would like to participate in the future, email us anyway and we will add you to our list of usability contacts.
Share and Enjoy!
The Salesforce.com User Experience Team
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