A reader enjoyed yesterday’s email about the differences between novice and advanced users, but they asked for an example.
Here’s the first one that came to mind.
I built a Salesforce app that allows Canadian and American nonprofits to generate tax receipts for their donors. The app doesn’t come with any page layouts, because as a consultant, I’m annoyed when packages come with one. It’s very presumptuous for app builders to think they know what’s best for other consultant’s users.
This means that custom fields, buttons, and related lists need to be manually added to existing page layouts. Since consultants configure layouts differently, I didn’t make any assumptions.
Given this, when a user clicks the button “New Receipt” on an Opportunity, it creates a receipt. It also displays a confirmation message. In addition to this message, it indicates where the receipt can be found.
The exact message is, “A receipt is created. It’s available in the Receipt Installment”.
This way, the user doesn’t need to guess where to find it, especially since the Receipt Installment is a junction object to the Receipt object.
Another approach could have been, in the confirmation message, provide a link to the actual receipt.
The takeaway
When we work day in, day out in Salesforce, knowing where to find things becomes instinctual. When building new functionality, it’s important to remind yourself that not everyone is as familiar with Salesforce as you are.
Imagine you are using Salesforce for the 1st time, and keep that naive perspective in mind.