VCIM - What Users like about its "Look and Feel"

Selectors and Tabs vs. Menus

No Menus

Menus can be thought of as a series of popup buttons. To use them, you have to choose the menu you want to open, then open it, and look down the list. In a large system, menus may be organized hierarchically meaning the user opens a list, then hovers the mouse over an item to open a submenu and so on. The annoying thing about menus is that if you miss, you have to start over.

Menus are great for small systems but they are just plain awkward for large ones and unless they are heavily nested, do not reveal system structure. There is generally no navigation tracking with menu based systems.

Visual Hierarchy

The first thing users notice about VCIM is that it does not use traditional menus. Instead, the VCIM Selector and Tab approach gives the user five levels of hierarchy that is visually more intuitive, and faster to use.

Navigation Tracking

On the left of VCIM are the Selector Buttons with each Selector Button having its own Sub-Selector Buttons below it that are displayed when a Selector is clicked.

Each Subselector displays a different set of Main Tabs across the dialog area on the right. Each Main Tab may have additional Sub Tabs displayed below the Main Tabs. Each Sub Tab can have an additional set of Side Tabs displayed along the left side of the dialog area.

As the user drills down to their target dialog, their other choices available continue to be displayed for each level. In a menu system, the menus are closed once you make your selection. In VCIM, your structure is always displayed so you always know exactly where you are.

As the user drills down in different parts of the system, the Selector-Subselector system remembers the user's choices. So if a user is drilled down in one part of the system, say looking at a client ledger screen under the Clients Selector, then drills down to an accounting setup screen under the Setup Selector, when they click back on the Clients Selector, the system redisplays the client ledger screen!

In fact, the system tracks user selections at each level. Switching from one Main Tab to another Main Tab and back again will even restore the Sub Tabs and Side Tabs too!

This feature greatly eliminates repeated drill downs by remembering for the user, where they were in the system structure.

The net result is that a user has instant access to all parts of the system, and that when they need to interrupt access to one part of the system, VCIM will return them back to exactly where they were when they have completed the interruption.

Data Edits on Each Keystroke

"Click and Check"

The fastest and easiest way to code or (program) a data entry screen is to layout a screen and add a method to save the data entered. In our original Runbpi screens, we used an "Ok?" field which took little room on the screen and was the common spot the user "[F4]'ed" to to save. Often though, the user might forget to enter an important piece of data so we would add an edit, to make sure the user entered the data before we would allow the save. If the user forgot to enter something, the screen would display a message, return the user to the spot on the screen, and make them enter what was needed.

This makes sense. It also defines a strategy for aiding user input. It also defines a basic screen workflow and communication style between the user and the input software.

"Check and Click"

With VCIM, we can use standard GUI Controls that can visually be turned on and off. This means that we can start an input screen with a Save button disabled. Then once the user enters all data correctly, we can enable the save button, which does no further edit checking. The user is given a visual indication before clicking "Save" that sufficient data has been entered.

This too makes sense. It also defines a completely different strategy for aiding user input and communication style between the screen and user.

VCIM Visual Clues

VCIM uses two techniques to indicate to the user visually what data is needed. The first is the colouring of mandatory fields with a soft blue background until data has been entered. The second is the enabling of a Purple Help button that can display a list of data items that need to be entered or actions that need to be taken.

Psychological Comparison

Systems written using Check and Click are visually intuitive in the sense that the user knows they still have data entry to complete. The notion of clicking the "Save" Button might occur to them before completing entry, but since they can't, they save that step, and save reading an error message. Instead, they realize they need to continue entering.

With Click and Check, the user can keep trying to save, and every time the "Save" fails, they get an error message and are redirected to enter more. However slight, this is a negative experience, and cannot help but generate a little bit of the tiniest amount of disappointment. Users eventually do learn to enter everything and check fields before trying to save but we are rarely perfect, and every so often will get that little message back. The Click and Check technique can generate a negative experience for some people because of the error messages (and beeps), that can be construed however slightly as "you screwed up again".

Since entering data completely actually creates a "reward" by enabling the "Save" button, the existence of visual clues end up making Check and Click data entry a slightly more positive experience. Users simply do not get pounded with error messages.

User Speed Comparison

Runbpi speed has always been notoriously fast even on very slow workstations. A user can hit [F4] which usually takes them immediately to "Ok?", then [Enter]  which starts the edit, and the edit check then moves the user to the next field that needs input. Without looking, the user can click two keys and let the software take them to the next place. This isn't too bad, especially when learning a screen.

VCIM users generally use their mouse to click the Save button. Users can disagree which is faster but a fast keyboarder can usually get there quicker. VCIM users only need to hit the Save button once though. But then, Runbpi users generally pride themselves in not getting error messages. Fanatics can continue this argument...

Spawn

When a user is interrupted while working on data input and needs to look at additional data while a screen is locked, or if the user needs to look at screens for another client, they can instantly start another VCIM session by clicking the "Spawn" Button. If the user has logged in, the spawned VCIM will log itself in automatically. If a client has been selected, the spawned VCIM will start with that client pre-selected. Thus, a user never needs to interrupt current work!

Data Display and Data Entry on Same Screen

In order to engage and initialize update logic with minimal programming, systems are sometimes written using a button that must be clicked to start an update. Often, the programmer then displays an entirely new screen to enter data.

To use this type of system, a user must first locate the update button, then wait for the screen to appear, then visually scan the new screen to recognize it, then start using it. This is extra work for the user for nothing - it requires unneeded steps, it requires mental effort to deal with additional screens, and introduces minor delays.

In VCIM, the user can look at existing data, enter new data, or change existing data using the same screen. A user can quickly look up a data record, then, once they spot a data item that needs to be changed, simply click on it and change it! There is no button to click before changing, and there isn't a new screen that pops up that they now have to acclimatize to.

Instead, simply clicking on any data field engages update logic behind the scenes. This is just the simplest technique possible for the user - the user sees what needs to be changed, clicks on it, makes the change, and saves the change - all in one place!

Save and Revert

All VCIM Data Entry screens track when a user starts entering new data or makes changes to existing data. When a change is made, and the user has now entered or deleted something that can potentially be saved to the database, the Selectors and Tabs "go red" and lock, preventing the user from leaving the current screen until they reverse what they have done or saved what they have done.

This prevents users from switching screens and losing their work in the middle of data entry, or forgetting they have already started on something.

If data is changed by accident, there is always a Revert Button that undoes any changes the user has made.

When the user has completed enough of the screen to save, the Save Button becomes enabled. To clear the change and make the Tabs "go blue" again, the user can undo the changes made, click Revert, or click Save.

Proper Locking and Data Refreshing

Before any data can be entered or modified, VCIM always acquires an account lock for the data to be entered and refreshes any data already loaded and displayed - AUTOMATICALLY! If someone else is already working in that data, a Message Box pops up providing the name of the user and the name of the computer they are making the change on. If another person leaves a lock on for too long, you know who and where to contact to release it.

By performing proper database locking, two users cannot work on the same data item at the same time. A user will never be able to enter a screen-full of data only to find that the database will reject the update.

By refreshing data once locked, the user is always working on current data. A name and address record, for example, could be retrieved, but before doing any work, the user could go for lunch. Someone else could work on a portion of that record in the meantime and update the database. When the first user returns, they could work with stale data and overwrite what the second user had updated. This cannot happen when a system refreshes data upon locking.

Crisp Displays

To a user, VCIM screens seem incredibly simple and easy to use. They look almost trivial. However, to achieve this much simplicity for the user requires incredibly more programming effort. To enable or disable Save and Revert Buttons alone requires checking all fields every single keystroke. With Check and Click, edits are processed with every single keystroke. A VCIM screen then, burns many more CPU cycles than traditionally coded systems. With Click and Check, each keystroke may involve the execution of a few thousand lines of system and application code. With Check and Click, each keystroke could involve the execution of several hundred thousand lines of code.

To improve performance, VCIM runs an efficient PCode Engine with much of the Selector logic optimized in the multi-threaded framework.

In an old system (100MHz Pentium), VCIM runs noticeably slowly. With more modern systems (600MHz Pentium III), users report that VCIM seems quick compared to other systems they have seen or used. In current Terminal Server systems, (3GHz Dual Xeons), VCIM runs crisp and sharp with no noticeable loading on the CPUs.

Summary

VCIM is a remarkable user interface framework system that provides a highly responsive, easy to learn and use, high performance data entry interface for users. Our studies of user keystroke and mouse clicking behaviours and reactions to error messages have led us to an interface design strategy that minimizes effort by delivering simplicity to the user.

As a result, the VCIM user interface and experience is genuinely pleasant - users actually enjoy the "Look and Feel" of VCIM.