Salesforce is a powerful CRM tool, but only if it’s adequately adopted and used by your team. Optimizing your user interface (UI) for your sales reps is one of the best ways to ensure good adoption.
This blog post will teach you the fundamentals you need to know about simplifying your Salesforce screens – here are 19 ways to optimize your Salesforce UI today!
Understand the Correlation Between UI and Data Quality
Salesforce users will tell you that an essential aspect in determining whether or not they’ll use Salesforce is how easy it is to learn – they won’t use it if it’s challenging to use.
Suppose a Salesforce implementation is not intuitive, meaning users cannot figure out how to perform essential tasks without requesting help from IT or taking extra time to search for how-to guides. In that case, users are not likely to use the system to its full potential.
A well-designed data entry system is essential for ensuring high-quality data. A good interface will make it easy for users to input their information accurately, while clear and concise instructions will help to ensure consistent behavior. A well-designed data entry system will also help to prevent errors and ensure that data is complete and up to date. In short, a sound data entry system is essential for providing high-quality data.
Therefore, it is essential to take the time upfront to design an intuitive Salesforce UI that will promote user adoption and ensure data quality.
Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should
The user interface (UI) is one of the most important aspects of any software application. A well-designed UI can make the difference between successful adoption and a failed one.
With its complex feature set and customization options, Salesforce is typically not an easy system for new users to navigate.
While it’s possible to create a highly customized UI in Salesforce, it’s important to remember that this can lead to a confusing and chaotic user interface – one that is difficult for business users to use and even more difficult to provide consistent training for your end users.
A successful Salesforce implementation requires a consistent focus on creating an intuitive and easy-to-use UI. An intuitive and simplistic UI will help maximize adoption and ensure your business users get the most out of the platform.
Understand Your Users and Their Needs
Before beginning to design an effective Salesforce solution, you must take the time to understand your business users and their needs:
- What business processes do they need to complete daily?
- What data do they need access to do their jobs effectively?
By taking the time to understand these practical needs, you can ensure that your Salesforce solution supports the needs of your business users and shows them precisely what they need to perform their jobs.
Revealing the Clutter
One of the best ways to streamline and optimize Salesforce for your business users is to gain a deep understanding of their needs and processes. Doing this will help you identify which records, fields, features, apps, and screens are irrelevant distractions.
Eliminating these distractions will make Salesforce simpler and more accessible for your business users, leading to greater satisfaction and productivity.
In addition, this process of understanding and simplifying Salesforce will help you better understand your business users’ needs and how Salesforce can best meet those needs. As a result, you’ll be able to tailor Salesforce more effectively to the unique needs of your business, making it an even more powerful tool for your organization.
Personalize Your User Interface (UI)
As a Salesforce Admin, one of your primary goals is to help users be as productive and efficient as possible. One way you can do this is by ensuring that their screens are clutter-free and only show the information they need.
After you’ve met with the business users to understand their processes and needs, you can start rolling up your sleeves and customizing their screens to match their business requirements.
Doing this can help eliminate distractions and make it easier for users to find the information they need, leading to increased efficiency throughout the organization.
Simpler Is Better
It’s no secret that Salesforce can quickly become cluttered. As your company grows and changes, so do your data requirements.
Over time, new fields are added to various screens, sections are modified, and new layouts are introduced in select areas. While this may seem like a necessary evil, it often results in information overload and an inconsistent experience for sales reps struggling to find a customer’s phone number.
This inefficiency is why it’s often best to lean towards simplicity. Identifying all of the clutter and irrelevant elements on each screen will result in a better user experience for everyone on the team, as they will only see the information they need on each screen.
Having simple screens in Salesforce can undoubtedly feel daunting at first, but ensuring that you’ve accurately understood the business processes and needs of the users will empower you to simplify screens that everyone will love.
Use Visual Aids to Help Users Understand Their Data
As a Salesforce Admin, you know that data is essential to running a successful business. However, analyzing and understanding data can be challenging, especially for business users unfamiliar with Salesforce. One way to help business users better understand their data is to use visual aids.
Report charts, list views, Kanban views, and the activity timeline features in Salesforce provide ways to visualize data in an easy-to-understand format.
Salesforce Admins must consider how their colleagues could benefit from these features and decide if any customizations are required to provide business users with these critical visualizations throughout the system.
19 Ways to Improve Your Salesforce UI for Better Adoption
How to Simplify Your Salesforce Screens
Navigation Tabs: Only Show What’s Needed
One way to ensure that your Salesforce users get the most out of the platform is to carefully consider which tabs appear across the top of their screens. Based on their job responsibilities, you should be able to identify which tabs are relevant to their needs and ensure they are easily visible.
By hiding the rest, you can declutter the interface and make it easier and more user-friendly. By taking these steps, you can help your users get the most out of Salesforce and make their jobs easier.
1. Set Component Visibility to Hide Irrelevant Components
When building Salesforce pages, it’s essential to consider which components should be visible to users. In some cases, components may only be relevant for specific users or scenarios.
Rather than including these components on every page, you can leverage the “Set Component Visibility” functionality to control when they appear. Leveraging this feature can help to keep your pages clean and concise, making them easier to use and navigate.
When setting component visibility, you can hide the component entirely or show it only when certain conditions are met. By taking advantage of this functionality, you can ensure that your users only see the information that is relevant to them, making Salesforce more user-friendly and efficient.
2. Use Compact Layouts to Display Key Fields
Salesforce Admins will often overlook compact layouts. However, when used properly, this can be an efficient way for business users to see the essential information on the top of their screens.
Once you understand your team’s business requirements and processes, making sure that compact layouts display the key fields your users need when viewing any record is essential. Following this tip will ensure they have quick and easy access to the information they need to do their jobs effectively.
In addition, by keeping the compact layouts focused on the essential information, you can help prevent data overload and ensure that users can find what they need quickly and easily.
3. Use Minimal Tabs to Streamline Record Page Layouts
A cluttered interface can frustrate users and lead to confusion about where to find the needed information. Keeping your Lightning Record Pages simple and organized can help users navigate easily and get the necessary information.
Fewer subtabs mean less clutter, making it easier for users to find what they need. In addition, a well-organized page can make it easier to add new fields and records in the future.
So, when creating Lightning Record Pages, remember that less is often more. Keeping your pages clean and streamlined can help your business users work more efficiently and effectively.
How to Make Your Salesforce Screens Consistent
4. The Details Tab Should Be Your Default
The Details tab contains a wealth of information about a given record, and it should be the default tab that’s open on all objects and all record types in your system.
This way, when a business user searches for any record in Salesforce, clicking on the link from the search result will show them the granular details available for that record.
Additionally, the Details tab should be the first tab visually displayed on all objects and all record types in Salesforce. Following this tip will help business users quickly orient themselves to the different tabs and easily find the required information.
Applying these changes consistently across the entire system will improve user adoption and make end-user training a breeze.
5. The Related Tab Should Always Appear Alongside the Details Tab
On record pages, the Related tab should always appear alongside the Details tab. Implementing this tip will benefit your users so that they can quickly and easily find all of the related lists available to them.
Consistency is vital when applying this approach across your entire system. A consistent framework will allow your users to get acclimated quickly and understand where to find the information they need.
6. Apply the Same Layout Structure to All Standard and Custom Objects
One of the great things about Salesforce is that it is customizable to meet the specific needs of your business. However, this can also be somewhat of a double-edged sword, as it can be easy to get carried away with creating custom objects and forgetting the importance of consistency.
That’s why ensuring you apply the same layout structure for all pages on all standard and custom objects is essential. Doing this will ensure that your users have a consistent experience, regardless of which object they use.
Implementing this tip will help them feel confident and comfortable using Salesforce, leading to greater efficiency and productivity. So don’t forget the power of consistency – it may not be the most exciting aspect of Salesforce, but it is essential for creating a smooth and efficient user experience.
7. Leverage Path Component for Better Status Visualization
The Path feature is a powerful tool that can help increase an organization’s visibility and transparency. By tracking statuses on Lead, Opportunity, Case, Campaign, and other custom objects, users can quickly and easily see the current status of each item.
The Path functionality makes it easy to see the current status at a glance. Leveraging Path ensures that everyone in the organization is on the same page and that no one falls through the cracks.
By leveraging the Path functionality, organizations can improve efficiency and effectiveness, leading to better results.
8. Consider Hiding Path Component When Appropriate
As any business user knows, once a record reaches its final status, it is Closed. At this point, we don’t typically expect any business users to log in and modify the status.
Hiding the Path Component once a record is closed can help regain some real estate on the screen, especially if we don’t expect to update the record anymore.
Following this tip will help reduce clutter and make it easier for users to find the information they need.
9. Use the Related List Quick Links to Delight Your Users
The Related List Quick Links component in Lightning Experience is helpful for quickly accessing related records. By placing this component near the top of the screen, users can quickly identify and access all related records with fewer clicks.
This feature makes it an excellent replacement for the Salesforce Classic related links feature.
10. Leverage the Wide Column on the Lower Left
A wide column in the lower left corner of your record pages provides maximum real estate for important data and features that users will need to access. The wide column on the left benefits organizations working with a language that reads from left to right.
If your organization uses Salesforce in a language that reads from right to left, you might consider having the broader column on the lower right side of the screen.
This simple tip can help improve your organization’s efficiency and ensure everyone can get the most out of Salesforce.
11. Use the Narrow Column on the Lower Right
The lower right-hand column of your page layouts should include a Tab component, defaulting to the Activities tab. This tab ensures that users have quick access to log calls, create new tasks, create new events and send emails.
This section should also be where users can view the Activity Timeline and see a chronological history of activities previously logged for this record.
The second tab in this section should be for Chatter, where users can post and view the Chatter feed for that specific record. This tip will help keep users engaged with the record and allow them to access all the information they need in one place quickly.
12. Display Duplicate Notifications Where Appropriate
If your organization uses the Duplicate Management features of Salesforce, you should also consider having the Duplicate Notifications component on your page layouts.
Placed in the lower right-hand column of your page layouts, this is where users can see if the record they are looking at might be a potential duplicate.
Through this component, users with the appropriate permissions will also be able to review and merge duplicate records with a few simple clicks. This powerful feature can help keep your database clean and up to date.
By keeping duplicate records to a minimum, you can improve the accuracy of your data and make it easier for users to find the information they need.
As a result, the Duplicate Notifications component can play an essential role in maintaining the quality of your Salesforce data.
Make Salesforce Easier to Use
13. Empower Your Team With Global Actions
One of the most powerful features in Salesforce is the Global Actions functionality. With Global Actions, users can efficiently multitask, creating new tasks or sending emails from any unrelated record in Salesforce. This feature can be an incredible time-saver for users who must regularly create various types of records.
Users can easily access these actions and improve their productivity by using the Global Actions functionality.
So, if you’re looking for ways to improve your Salesforce implementation, make sure that Global Actions are appropriately configured and not overly cluttered for your business users.
14. Introduce The Utility Bar to Provide Powerful Functionality
As a Salesforce Admin, one of the best ways to empower your users is by leveraging the functionality in the Utility Bar. For example, dynamic List Views like “My Open Opportunities” allow business users to immediately access all their deals from any Salesforce screen.
This functionality extends further by popping out the Utility Bar components into a new browser window. Then, clicking on items in the pop-out window controls which records appear in the main browser.
Through these features, the Utility Bar provides vast potential for increased productivity for your business users.
So make sure you take advantage of all it has to offer!
15. Incorporate List Views on the Homepage
List Views are an essential tool for every Salesforce Admin. By creating custom List Views and placing them on the homepage, admins can tailor the Salesforce interface to the specific needs of their business users.
This tip reduces training time and boosts efficiency and productivity by giving users quick and easy access to essential records.
In addition, List Views are dynamic, meaning they automatically display all records currently in the system, matching the filtering criteria defined within the List View. By simply leveraging filters like “My” records or “My Teams” records, users will automatically see those records that are most meaningful to them.
Implementing this enhancement means that users always have the most up-to-date information at their fingertips, making it easier to stay on top of their work. In short, List Views are a powerful tool every Salesforce Admin should take advantage of. Including critical List Views on the homepage makes the homepage a valuable resource, while ensuring that deals, cases, customers, and prospects don’t slip through the cracks.
16. Utilize Rich Text Components to Provide Additional Resources
The Rich Text components in Salesforce are a powerful tool for admins to improve efficiency and productivity. By understanding the business processes of your users, you can identify which external resources, key reminders, or reference materials they need most.
Then leverage the dynamic visibility functionality to only display these rich text components to the appropriate users at the correct times. Properly implemented, this feature will help ensure that your users have the information they need when they need it, without clutter or distractions.
Ultimately, this feature will help them work more efficiently and effectively, improving your bottom line.
17. Report Charts on The Homepage – Bring Data to Life!
Salesforce offers a great way to visualize data with Report Charts. Report Charts can be displayed on the homepage or record pages, providing an aggregate visualization of many Salesforce records in the database. This feature can be tremendously valuable for any team member, providing insights into relevant metrics.
On the homepage, you can display Report Charts showing trending information by department. For example, a sales manager might benefit from seeing All Open Opportunities grouped by sales rep. A Customer Support Leader might want to see all cases created within the last 12 months, grouped by Case Type. This feature gives everyone on the team a clear understanding of what is happening in the organization.
Additionally, on record pages, you can display dynamically filtered report charts. For example, on the Account page, you might want to see all of the cases associated with that Account, grouped by Case Type or Status. This feature gives you more insights into the types of customer support issues this customer has experienced.
Whether looking at the big picture or drilling down into the details, Salesforce’s Report Charts are a great way to get insights into your data.
18. In-App Guidance
Salesforce’s In-App Guidance is a helpful tool that admins can use to provide training insights and tips for business users. By incorporating training materials into the Salesforce screens, you can minimize the need for individualized one-on-one training requests and empower users to be self-sufficient in learning Salesforce at their own pace.
In-App Guidance is particularly helpful when releasing new enhancements or onboarding new users, as it provides a convenient way for users to access training materials without leaving the Salesforce interface. As a result, In-App Guidance can help to reduce the learning curve for new users, making it easier for them to become proficient in using Salesforce.
19. Customized Help Menu Options
As a Salesforce Admin, you have a lot of power to customize the system to fit the needs of your users. One way to do this is to add custom links to the Help Menu.
You can direct users to helpful resources like internal webinars, wikis, and other training materials. Doing this can help your users get the most out of the Salesforce platform.
Not only will they be able to find answers to their questions more quickly, but they can also use all of the features and functions that Salesforce offers. So, if you’re looking for a way to make your users’ lives easier, adding custom links to the Help Menu is a great place to start.
Summary
As any Salesforce Admin knows, simplifying the user interface is essential for maintaining good data quality and overall user adoption rates. However, keeping up with the constant stream of new features and requests from business users can be difficult.
As a result, it’s essential to audit the user interface and review business processes periodically. This step will help to identify areas where clutter on the screens is causing confusion and frustration.
By following the steps outlined in this article, admins can get a sanity check with their users to review the current UI and determine what modifications will simplify the screens and delight users. Ultimately, this will lead to better data quality and higher overall adoption rates.
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