Solution Design Best Practices

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

For more design best practices, see Design Best Practices.

General design suggestions

• Consider the user's point-of-view when making design decisions.

• Keep layouts simple and minimize the use data-driven events, calculations, tabs, and fields to improve performance.

• Display only what is relevant and necessary in the context in which it is displayed.

• Document everything.

  • Add descriptions wherever possible.
  • Include help text on any fields that need additional explanation.
  • Include the Platform version number in the application description. All applications are forward compatible, but not backward compatible.
  • Include a publication date for solutions and applications.
  • Maintain a separate library of custom object code (you can get this from the Application Custom Object Summary report).

• Do not over-engineer to accommodate outliers. Make choices that benefit the majority of users in the majority of situations.

• Do not make design decisions based on accommodating the most mature, complicated business processes. Start simple and allow for more complexity to be added later, as needed.

• Do not duplicate core Archer applications.

Before you begin building your solution

1. Create a high-level solution architecture.

2. Create a list of impacts to other applications and fields within those applications.

3. Research the impacts to other solutions and share them with the broader solutions team.

4. Work with a UX designer and senior solutions team members to verify the design against requirements.

Layout & workflow best practices

• Make sure page layouts and workflows are user-friendly.

  • Make use of both columns for smaller fields.

  • Span columns for text areas.

  • Move grid-based fields to the bottom of the layout when possible.

• Confirm editable fields follow a logical process flow.

• Use color strategically, thoughtfully and consistently to direct attention or communicate meaning. Do not use color as a purely decorative element.

• Make sure that the system communicates what’s happening. Inform users of location, actions, changes in state, or errors.

• Think about defaults that may reduce burden on the user. Carefully consider user types and goals to anticipate how prefilled, preselected or default states may reduce their cognitive load.

• Do not place First Published and Last Updated fields on the layout. These items are shown in the page header by default.

• Minimize the number of fields kept off-layout.

Sections

• Use sections to organize fields in logical groups.

  • Enable the expand and collapse option for all sections.

  • Make context-based choices about which sections should be expanded or collapsed by default.

  • Allow users to open or collapse multiple sections at a time.

• Avoid hiding critical information within a collapsed panel.

• Limit nested sections to the primary section and 1 level of subsections. Avoid multiple sublevels of sections as the user can easily become lost within the hierarchy.

• Include an About section.

  • Include a text box with instructions that inform the user of the application’s purpose.

  • Set section to collapsed by default.

Tabs

• Tabs are limited to the parent set and 1 sublevel.

  • Limit parent tabs to fewer than 7 per layout.

  • Limit child tabs to fewer than 7 per layout.

• Create only 1 row of tabs to ensure that tabs are easy to scan and to reduce visual noise.

• Write short, plain language tab labels. Tab labels should usually be 1- 2 words. Consider using an icon as a tab label.

• Arrange tabs in an order that makes contextual sense for the user.

• Left-align tab sets within the page design

• Logically group the content on the tabs so that users can easily predict what they'll find when they select a tab.

• Use tabs only when users don't need to see content from multiple tabs simultaneously. Having to switch back and forth between tabs increases cognitive load.

• Highlight the selected tab so it is obvious which tab you are viewing.

• Ensure that unselected tabs are clearly visible.

Permissions and access controls

• Limit record permissions to fewer than 10.

• Limit rules-based record permission fields to fewer than 7.

• Access controls

  • Assign users to groups.

  • Assign access roles to specific groups.

Naming conventions & labeling best practices

Keep naming conventions as simple as possible. The following table suggests the lengths for naming conventions.

Item	Length
Workspace & dashboard names	5 words or less
Report names	4 words or less
Application & questionnaire names	3 words or less
Solution names	3 words or less
Field and section names	2 words or less