Simplify Usability Guidelines - Use Templates

[Fabian Kunzke]

So just a minute ago i asked myself "huh, why did i not do this earlier?". Allow me to share this simple, yet very effective thought. Picture this:
You are creating a new application for a customer and/or are customising an existing one. You add a reference field here, one over there and one right here. Following the guidelines of your company and the requirements from the customer, you notice that all these fields reference the user table. Additionally they all follow the same behaviour, with the same attributes and the same reference filter.

Now, if you are like me, you probably did that once, twice and many more times. Maybe you even started to copy and paste the list of attributes for the field. Maybe you forgot it somewhere and now you have to check all fields again for the attributes, just out of paranoia.

Well, don't be like me. Use templates. I just finished creating and setting up all user based fields just for the tester to note, that they sometimes behave differently. Now, if i would have used templates (and yes, i literally mean those templates which are normally used for task creation) i could have one template named "user reference field". Not only would i be a lot faster, as i do not have to enter the same information over and over again. But i also would've ensured, that all fields behave the same.

Don't be like me. Use templates.

ps.: Gonna create a set of templates to be used for all our developers, so that every field behaves the same form now on.

[Community Alums]

From an application design standpoint, do you have a fixed number of references to the User table? Have you considered whether a many-to-many (m2m) configuration might be better suited to your application? You could create the m2m table with a field that describes the user's connection to your application table. An m2m table adds complexity to any scripting you need for your application, but it could simplify your application configuration and give it room to grow in the future. 

Please note that I am saying this without having any details on your application and how it works. I am just basing this feedback on the thought that you are creating enough reference fields pointing to the user table that it warrants creating a template...

Ben 

[Fabian Kunzke]

Hi Ben,

A bit of background: I am working with multiple different customers in different project scenarios. We create reference fields to the user table quite often in ITSM and ITBM implementations. It is highly unlikely that we are creating and/or editing more than 3 reference fields on a single table. I am always to keep fieldchaos to an absolute minimum.

That said, your input is a very valid one. If multiple fields are created which do essentially the same, a related table is probably the better option.

Again, this to me was an interesting tool to help keep the same level of standards across multiple implementations. The main goal was not to ease up the creation of fields so we can have 10 reference fields on one form, but rather keeping the same standard.

To simplify it: I have days where i need to create or modify 10-15 fields which should do the same. However, these fields are spread across multiple tables, sometimes even multiple applications. But to keep the user experience on the same level i started to use templates. Now, everytime i create a new user field, it will behave the same as the user field i created half a year ago.

This of course works for other reference fields as well.

Thanks for the input.

Regards

Fabian

[Community Alums]

Thanks for the clarification. That makes a lot of sense, provided the tables where you are creating the fields can use the same templates. 🙂