Bells and whistles

[Dink]

Hello,

I have a basic db setup, but now I am looking for some really neat bells and whistles to add to WOW the user.

If you are kind enough to share some of your creations, please give it to me in a "FileMaker for Dummies" format, I am just a Newbie after all.

Thanks in advance

Have a great day!

Scott [color:"blue"]

[Kurt Knippel]

Well the easiest and perhaps most important is a well thought out and consistant user interface. Most user seem to prefer either a tabbed or button driven interface.

I also like adding sort buttons to the colums in list view.

Maybe some more details about what you already have?

[booboo]

I think the best 'wow' comes from the quality of your printouts, and the ergonomics of the database in day to day use. Built-in help and unambiguous functionality. Sometimes a little frivolity like a Tip For The Day can be fun, but please let the user turn them off!

As far as the appearance is concerned, I personally recommend staying as close as possible to the OS functionality and layout. This minimizes the learning curve and also makes your database look like a proper shipping application. In practice, this means tabbed displays - which work well for navigation, buttons that look like buttons, and dialogue boxes in plain English - or whatever your native tongue happens to be - but not in FileMaker dev-speak. This means intercepting many of FileMaker's own generic dialogues and error messages, and replacing them with something more easily understandable to the user, and specific to what they actually did to invoke the message.

Steal graphics and dialogues from the OS, conform to the user's expectations, don't confound them.

Yellow buttons on blue backgrounds might look fun this week, but they're more than likely next week's headache.

FileMaker themselves have gone for an Aqua-esque look in their recent templates, but I seriously question the current fashion for light-grey text on an only slightly lighter background.

Apple's guidelines on UI are probably worth a read as they inevitably (eventually) apply to Windows too.

If you're stuck, you could always post one of your layouts and see what people come up with...

[stardust]

That's alot of great advice. It's sometimes easy to forget that a simple and clean design are all the bells and whistles a good UI really needs.

What you really may want to ask yourself is, "What does your target market/audience/end-user need or want?" Is there any kind of "value-added" service or tidbit you could offer? Perhaps you could use this as an opportunity to educate your target market about your specific field or industry.

You may find that offering useful information that your target can walk away with is better than spinning globes and flashy things.

Hope this helps!

[Dink]

Okay, to get a better understanding about what I have, here it is.

This is what I have as a user interface, it is constant across the board. What I like and call "bells and whistles" are the quick access to email & URL features that I found in button/script.

(side note: when I send an email, it automatically opens up in the "drafts" section in email? Can this be redirected to the "new" section?:??)

Anyway, these little tools are great, so of course, now I want more. When I added these two little features it made the layout more interesting and more useful to the user.

I am completely open to critique, just be gentle and remember NEWBIE, NEWBIE,NEWBIE

Thanks again,

Sincerely,

Scott

[Dink]

see, NEWBIE. Here is the attatchment