Make Salesforce More User-Friendly

Are you getting the most out of your Salesforce environment? 

Whether your organization has been using Salesforce for 10+ years, recently implemented the platform, or are considering if it is right for your organization, there are guiding principles we recommend to ensure your environment serves your team effectively. This blog focuses around our first key recommendation, which is having a user-friendly focus. There are many simple steps an organization can take to improve attitudes about the system and ensure ongoing adoption.

User-Friendly Focus

Implementing or enhancing Salesforce with a user-first perspective helps avoid common issues like being unable to find key fields or navigate between objects. With a highly flexible tool like Salesforce it can be easy to fall into the trap of building a complex maze where your users struggle to accomplish their day to day tasks.

The first step to optimize your user experience is to define and document the key processes that occur within your Salesforce environment. Taking a process-centric approach to your configuration and data architecture will ensure decisions match end user needs. Below we outline basic items organizations should evaluate when creating a user-centric environment.

Page Layouts

Optimizing page layouts is a quick win item for organizations who want to help their users better facilitate their day-to-day work. Page layouts should enable users to see the information they need and take quick actions. Engaging your user base in determining what data and actions they are most often looking for on each object page can help guide any changes. Visibility on each Salesforce object should be guided by the underlying business process it is supporting and what information is necessary.

Do’s and Don’ts

 Don’t:

• • Clutter the page with too many fields
    • If users must use Ctrl+F to find fields they are looking for that’s a strong sign there’s too much data on the page
  • Create long page layouts with scrolling required
    • Make sure the most important information is “above the fold” limiting the effort required for users to access

 Do:

• • Add related components
  • Help users see related objects and relevant information to improve workflow and simplify navigation
  • Utilize Dynamic Lightning page layouts
    • Making fields, sections or entire components hidden with conditional visibility keeps layouts clean and relevant
    • Dynamic related lists allow you to draw from related records and show relevant field details
    • With dynamic layouts, fields can be regrouped, hidden, or even duplicated
      • For objects that require a large number of visible fields, add a tab component and separate fields by topic, allowing access to more data points without clutter

Navigation

Custom Apps and the navigation bar are the most common components to consider when it comes to designing user navigation. It’s critical that relevant objects are easily accessible for a user’s role. However, thinking through navigation at a more granular level opens opportunities to minimize rudimentary processes and guide users to accomplish tasks quickly and accurately.

• Quick Actions
  • Configure object level quick actions, applying default values and prompting only the most relevant fields to be input
  • Very easy entrance point, for even the newest admins
• Screen Flows
  • Screen flows can guide users through the creation of multiple records, or creation of a complex record broken down into digestible pieces
• Remove New Buttons
  • If you prompt users to create records from designed processes, remove standard new buttons, which often have too many fields available and lack guidance
• Make Home Page Actionable
  • Add action items directly to the home page with customized list views, screen flows and today’s tasks

The recommendations outlined are quick wins any organization can implement that will provide outsized improvements to your user experience. In working with Salesforce organizations of all sizes across industries, those that apply a user-centric approach have successful implementations with strong buy in resulting in long-term adoption. By listening to your users, the simple steps to address their common pain points become obvious and guide you towards a more effective Salesforce environment.

If you need help streamlining your Salesforce environment or are a super-user looking to train your team reach out to ATX Senior Consultant, Abby Morrow at abby.morrow@atxadvisory.com 

Authors: Abby Morrow, Paige Stolen