BluePrint: User Interface

Requirements

1. Users should be able to easily navigate to their desired functionality
2. Users should be presented with the minimum possible number of navigation options / menu items (while still being able to easily navigate to their desired functionality)
3. There should be a standard layout between different "resources"
4. Page Elements which require heavy server load (Maps, Advanced Search Forms, etc) should only be loaded when they are needed
5. It should be clear to a user what a specific page is required for

Create Read Update Delete (CRUD) (+List Search) Page Layout

Design

Some designs for improving the page layout have been documented and discussed here: ​https://docs.google.com/document/d/15TGk9H_iFKIz2VdTeOM6A38Sht0KTFP9aM51aqeLP30/edit

Tasks

This is a draft list of some tasks which could be implemented to improve the page layouts: Easy

• List pages should be replaced with Search pages
• All Search pages should have a single text search on their simple search form
• There should be a button to show a (pre-loaded) create form on the search page
• Records should open in read view by default
• There should be a button to toggle between the read view and an edit view
• When a record is saved (updated) the next page should be the read view for that record.

Hard

• The advanced search for should only load when it is viewed
• There should be a button to toggle between the rheader and an edit form
• When an item is opened from a list, it should be loaded by JS on top of the list page. When it is closed, the list should refresh to show the changes to the item (Or is there a better way to achieve this?)

Module Index Pages

Design

There is a draft design document here ​https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EKt6lSs1d2kuyCfCM8hQZdeL2zfCJ2JKvPU-dm81TUQ/edit with some ideas for module page content.

Tasks

• Page template with Predefined DIV classes to be able to create 2-5 panes in which content such as the following can be inserted
  • Simple Search box which doesn't display the unfiltered results by default & opens both search results &/or Advanced Search in a separate page
  • List of 'Top 5' either Actionable Items or FYI 'recently added/modified' for one or more resources (with hyperlinks to their details), with a 'More' button to see the full list
  • KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) / Summary Statistics
  • Maps only included where they add value - e.g. 'Recent Incidents' clearly adds value, whereas 'My Warehouses' far less so.
  • instructional text
  • Links / Big Buttons

Questions

• Should the ability to search multiple resources be done as separate search boxes or a single box with a dropdown to select the resource?
• Should the initial default page for a user be filtered for their Organisation (which could be their Branch, so is a reasonable default for many of both HQ & Field staff, where Branches are used) or should it be a set of New User instructions explaining the usage/terminology of the module (with perhaps a diagram) & a clear 'Personalise this Page' option which allows the user to configure the default filter settings for the page (e.g. Region/Country/Organisation/Branch/Office/Team)