We've got a well established software base... thats getting on the dated side... and a lot of our UI relies on many datagrids on the same page/form etc. I've mentioned that I think this makes our application hugely non-intuitive. Rather than just complaining, I'm trying to solicit ideas about how to replace some of these customer facing forms with a more intuitive patterns.
My problems with this kind of model we've established so far are:
- The correlation between the grids themselves is not always (mostly never) intuitive.
- New records are created using "dbnavigators" which are the little left/right/firstrecord/lastrecord/post/cancel button bar, and rely on things being in place in one grid before the next grid can add an item etc.
- Inline editing in the datagrid seems to always add immense layers of complexity
I've tossed around ideas for directed navigation (basic wizards) to much more contextual forms with tabs... eg, customer context form, and a tab for orders in which you can view. An add button to add an order etc.
Anything would be better though :(