I have often wished we could customize what info comes back in the search results. I regularly wish I could see email address, phone number or constituent code after searching for a name or address. Unfortunately I have always been told this is one of the few areas that really can't be customized within Tessitura...
Our event management system (USI's EBMS) has a neat piece or two of design for list screens (ie screens like the constituent search results). Every list screen lets you customise the columns - you just right-click on the column headings, and then you can select a wide range of columns to hide or show. Your selection is saved as part of your profile, so individual users can effectivly customise the display columns to suit their own needs. USI started with just offering a few obvious directly related columns in the selection as additions to the standard set, but the idea is so useful that the selection (for the main screens, anyway) has gradually grown so that a wide range of related values is offered. I think that's a much more productive, flexible, and generic approach than just adding specific columns to a list view, and much more in line with the general Tess approach. I'd really like to see Next Gen take that approach in building the new list view component. The List screens in EBMS also have a few basic search/filter fields, and then an "Options" button which jumps out to a dialogue box that lets you set complex filtering and searching values. And you can then save the filtered view in your profile as a personal "Favourite", if it's one you might use again.) That setup of a simple and quick and basic search presented upfront, with more complex search options as a separate step (as Chuck asked about in a earlier post), seems like the right philosophy to me - and the ebms idea of letting users save filter/search conditions as a favourite in their profile adds a whole lot of good usability as well. KenM
Our event management system (USI's EBMS) has a neat piece or two of design for list screens (ie screens like the constituent search results).
Every list screen lets you customise the columns - you just right-click on the column headings, and then you can select a wide range of columns to hide or show. Your selection is saved as part of your profile, so individual users can effectivly customise the display columns to suit their own needs. USI started with just offering a few obvious directly related columns in the selection as additions to the standard set, but the idea is so useful that the selection (for the main screens, anyway) has gradually grown so that a wide range of related values is offered.
I think that's a much more productive, flexible, and generic approach than just adding specific columns to a list view, and much more in line with the general Tess approach. I'd really like to see Next Gen take that approach in building the new list view component.
The List screens in EBMS also have a few basic search/filter fields, and then an "Options" button which jumps out to a dialogue box that lets you set complex filtering and searching values. And you can then save the filtered view in your profile as a personal "Favourite", if it's one you might use again.)
That setup of a simple and quick and basic search presented upfront, with more complex search options as a separate step (as Chuck asked about in a earlier post), seems like the right philosophy to me - and the ebms idea of letting users save filter/search conditions as a favourite in their profile adds a whole lot of good usability as well.
KenM
Ken,
I agree that being able to select a set of column for the results of a search is a good idea. There are many systems that I use that provide this feature and I often use it. (For example Exchange, and Track-IT, Task Manager all provide this feature.)
I also note that this tends to be a power user feature. Because changing the column is hidden somewhere obscure in the system. In many of the systems that I use this kind of feature, I note that many of my co-workers do not use the feature or even know that it is there.
In the case of the story that I shared from my real user, she did not provided those specific details, she really want to see just constituencies to make her life easier.
--Tom
From: Tessitura Next Generation Forum [mailto:forums-nextgeneration@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Ken McSwain Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 7:35 PM To: Thomas Brown Subject: Re: [Tessitura Next Generation Forum] FW: search screen improvement
From: Boann Petersen <bounce-boannpetersen5924@tessituranetwork.com> Sent: 10/6/2009 1:26:52 PM
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Hi Tom
Yes - it's definitely the sort of feature that a lot of users don't take advantage of, so mostly only power uses get the benefit. It's a bit sad, really. That's true for the current search filtering mechanism (for example) in Tess, too - it slips out of the consciousness of new users quite easily, and people don't take enough advantage of it. We keep mentioning it to people who are quite surprised to discover that it's there.
I guess that means that part of the usability challenge is trying to design the system in such a way that this sort of option makes itself obvious to users when they're thinking that way, without over-complicating the information architecture so that novice users get confused by a forest of possibilities. I certainly don't think that ebms has got that bit right, although I like the overall ideas. Even I find some of the logic of their list screens non-intuitive, and I know what they do.
Ken
People seem to be gravitating to searching things like how we search with Google. Wouldn't it make sense to search the tables based on that kind of algorithm?
Let's say you were looking for a constituent, then you could type in the name, email, phone or whatever is easiest to find? You could also use the same function to find a promo code or some other kind of promotion.
Maybe you want to see all the shows that start with the word "The". I only say this so we can think outside the box for a search. If you want the search to be faster then allow check boxes at the bottom to exclude or include larger data sets. I only want to search single ticket buyers or only board members. That is more of the column idea. This would enable the searcher to find things much more dynamically.
Thanks,
Dave Alton