[AccessD] Switchboard

TO me the first questions are - 1) what does the app do?, 2) what does the
user need out of it in order to do their job.  That dictates what buttons
are on the main menu.

R


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 11:20 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Switchboard

I'll show you mine if you show me yours, and in case any internet police are
reading this, I meant switchboards!

I have several versions of the basic switchboard concept, which I would be
happy to share with you, and will send them to you privately, The one I'm
currently working on is based on code from our lister and guru Jim Dettman,
whose code I inherited and began to modify. My last version I also inherited
and modified. Both have virtues and limits.

But I guess that what I'm after is an answer to the question, "If you don't
use a switchboard, how do you map the navigation into your app?" Do you even
begin with a switchboard or its equivalent, or do you immediately take the
user to the "Do Right Now" list of tasks? Which obviously may vary widely
from app to app, but nonetheless there could be an opening form that lists,
for example, "Overdue Invoices", "Purchase Orders Unfulfilled" and so on as
its top items, followed by general (i.e. time-insensitive) items such as
"Maintain Lookup Tables" which leads to a sub-menu of Regions, Cities,
Employees etc.

Or would you prefer to begin with a list of Customers and drill down from
there? Ah! I think that I'm finally beginning to discover the abstract
nature of the question I'm asking, which goes much deeper than the most
desirable front end: What is the most intuitive hierarchy (not from the
developer's perspective, but the user's)? Do Actions lead to Objects and
then Events? Or to Events (i.e. Overdue Invoices) lead to actions, and only
after that lead to Info Forms such as Customer_Edit_frm? Of course, there
must also be a way to get to that form directly, but what I'm attempting to
address in this overlong question is this: should one design the interface,
whether switchboard or any other presentation model you use, most
immediately present the tasks or actions the user is facing upon login? And
in the latter case, ought we do dispense with the switchboard as the initial
presentation, and instead move right away to the "S**t we have to deal with
RFN (if English is not your first language, think about it) list(s), which
conceivably could be several subforms on an opening master form, and a
double-click on any item in any of the subforms could open a dialog on same
detail, and invite an action upon same item?

I don't know. I'm groping for your approaches to these questions/approaches.

A.
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