I found out that one type of workflow using SeeMyBest Pro was really awkward for users. I was offered some suggestions for making it work for that particular workflow but I pointed out that the offered solution would make other types of workflows more difficult.
So I offered to cogitate a while and see what I could come up with.
As usual, I tried to get the bottom of what the requirements were; what problem needed to be solved rather than focusing on solutions.
Here's a screenshot of the solution I came up with:
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| New ease-of-use feature - the Button Panel |
So what was the workflow that wasn't working so well?
Workflow that was awkward
This is all about generating copy-and-paste html for a blog / website.
There could be many uses of this workflow, but in this case the user was creating and scheduling, ahead of time, a daily blog post. S/he was trying to create many posts, quite far out into the future.
The workflow went something like:
- Set up the configuration for the session (tracking codes, search terms, department, category, that sort of thing)
And then for each store they have:
- change the storename
- pull the products
- select all
- save selected
- finalize code
- copy finalized code and paste into blog (schedule it, publish it)
- Repeat
Other variations included keeping the storename the same but changing the department or category each time. Sometimes not all products were to be used (select all, then manually deselect some - or vice versa).
Looking at those steps more closely, most are to do with button clicking or changing the "pull" criteria.
So my solution was to put all the buttons into a panel that floats on the left of the screen, always in view, no matter where you scroll. The panel only appears when you are generating copy-and-paste html as that's when having the buttons panel make most sense.
You can then work with the More Pulling Options section open, making it easy to change storename, search term, department or category, while having the buttons you need conveniently on the left.
Small enough to listen, big enough to create great tools!
Enjoy!
