Fields Design Best Practices

Follow these best practices to create consistent, user-friendly fields for your solutions.

For more design best practices, see Design Best Practices.

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General field guidelines

  • Limit displayed fields to fewer than 70 per layout.

  • Fields should always have a label.

    • Field labels should be 1 - 2 words.

  • Make the required input format clear.

  • Fields should include Help text only when necessary.

    • Help text should not be repetitive of the field label but should provide additional information necessary for task completion.

  • Fields should include tool tips,only when necessary.

    • Tool tips should not be repetitive of the field label or help text.

    • Don’t use tool tips for information that is vital to task completion. Tool tips should provide additional explanation or reasoning for a field.

    • Tool tips should be brief; 1-2 sentences, at most.

    • Position tool tips so they don’t block related content.

Calculated fields

  • Calculations should be as simple as possible

  • Calculation order should be reviewed often.

  • Ensure that calculated fields function as intended. Test all values within a calculated values list display for the appropriate condition.

    • Test with actual data.

    • Test both positive and negative conditions.

    • Keep the Error Handling set to Display Error as much as possible; it is the only indicator you may have that a calculation is not working.

    • Important! Validation in the Formula Builder only validates syntax. It does not validate the calculation itself.

  • Set most calculations to As Needed.

    • Only calculations that use NOW() or TODAY() should be set to Always.

    • Always may also be used for troubleshooting or calculation testing. Be sure to return the setting to As Needed once you finish troubleshooting.

  • Account for NULL dates in calculations. Unaccounted NULL dates show as an error.

  • Account for empty values in calculations. Use the ISEMPTY() function to evaluate and handle empty data.

  • Account for multiple cross-reference or sub-form entries when calculating across applications.

    • Most Recent Value or Combined Values can help.

Numeric fields

  • Include prefixes and suffixes where appropriate to help users clearly understand the data.

Cross-reference fields

  • Limit cross reference fields to fewer than 20 per layout

  • Limit total cross-references to fewer than 500 per layout.

  • Whenever it is appropriate, use report objects instead of cross-reference fields.

    • Any cross reference with more than 10 - 20 linked records should go off-layout in favor of a report object.

  • Cross-reference field typically appears on the child application with the related records field on the parent application.

  • The single column cross-reference should be configured as a values pop-up display type.

  • Cross-reference fields displayed as grids:

    • Should contain the related applications key field in the first column in the grid.

    • Should have a default display of 5 records for a cleaner appearance.

    • Include both Add New and Lookup options.

Values lists

Important: Values lists load all of their content into a page; lists with many selections will slow performance.

  • Use descriptive links for values that aren’t readily understood

  • Single-select values lists with 2 - 4 values should be displayed as radio buttons.

  • Multi-select values lists with 2 - 4 values should be displayed as checkboxes

  • Single or multi-select values lists with 5-10 values should be displayed as a drop-down.

  • Single or multi-select values lists with more than 10 values should include a type-ahead filter.

  • The use of Global Value Lists (GVLs) should be limited to use cases where a GVL is referenced multiple times within the same application.

Subforms

  • Use of subforms should be limited because:

    • Cannot use Data Driven Events, Record Permissions, or Notifications

    • Accessible only via the parent record and cannot be referenced via other records.

    • Can create a cross-reference within the Subform, but no Related Record is created in the referenced application.

Notifications

  • Enable notifications for newly created applications.

  • Include a description to help differentiate between similarly named templates.

  • Notification alerts should be periodically sent to users and should direct them to the record needing action.

  • Use Instant notifications as a base to create digest notifications – giving your users a number of delivery options for the same content.