Use Tab or Button Click or give the user the option of both to get data?

Question

I'm currently in the process of building a Helpdesk like application, and when the user creates a new ticket they need to select a customer and transaction by entering a certain number of criteria.

Once they have entered this information, the appropriate record is retrieved and shown. However, what I'm currently trying to work out, in the interest of user efficency, is the best way for the user to initiate this data transaction by clicking a button, pressing tab, or by giving them the option to do both?

or would giving them both be too much choice for the user?

Answer 1

You should stick to common convention on something like this.

If the inputs are set up like a spreadsheet then people understand that by pressing tab they will go to the next record and the first record will be processed.

Since you say this is a help desk app it doesn't sound like this is what you are doing, so I would say you should have a button.

That said, pro users will always appreciate keyboard shortcuts so making tab work as well sound like a good idea.

Answer 2

I have used a few different help desk systems and because of the nature of the beast, efficiency is always one of the top priorities. One thing myself and most if not all of my coworkers hated was when we had to wait for the app to do its own thing. Two of our systems automatically pulled up the client's information as soon as you left the input field(by tabbing, etc). Sitting and waiting for an ajax form to load was always annoying because it felt like the controls were out of my hands and the program was just "wasting my time doing its own thing". For this reason, I would suggest using a button to query for the client's information. Clicking the button just makes it feel like it is you who is controlling the program.

However, the frustration associated with having to wait for the system to do its own thing was probably caused by the fact that we were unable to fill out anything else until that information was loaded. If you set it up so that the tech can fill out the new ticket while the client's information is loading, I think that would be pretty snazzy. Of course this would only work with the creation of new tickets because you don't have to update existing information. If you went with this route, simply tabbing or clicking on the next field would be a little more palatable.