ISSUE
represent a complex customer management software (crm) product's functionality simply in a compact space while maintaining the core information architect.

SOLUTION
develop a core set of handheld UI guidelines and an information architecture which adheres to the device operating system's usage model while loosely following the desktop model's user experience.

ROLE
lead user experience designer

The redesign of the existing handheld user interface was begun in the winter of 2001. The task was to design an interface using the current core data architecture for mobile users - pharmaceutical representatives, field service agents, sales personnel, and others. The design was to inherit certain elements and concepts from the desktop application - display of a parent / child record relationship and various visual elements.

In customer relationship management (CRM) software, clear visualization of one record to one record relationship or a one record to many records relationships is critical in the information rich space. The parent / child record relationship is a core user interface element for Siebel 7's handheld solution, shown to the right. It allows users to pick a record and view the detail information about the record.

Some elements were in place and could be borrowed. Other elements needed to speak directly to an existing visualization language. Other details were created to adhere to the current CE handheld operating system (dialogs and sync preferences) and others involved device dependent consideration (gray scale color usage).

Project History
During the conceptual phase, the design had several iterations rendered using the existing user interface element. Existing elements where reused so the visualization of the ideas did not create a barrier between core engineers, the product managers and myself.

The interface grew based on the desired to have its appearance and functions reflex the desktop's appearance and functions.

Due to the project's short time line, during the creation of the user interface, I was able to work in tandem with the graphic interface engineer using annotated images to specify details before the style guide was written. Click here to view the style guide.

Sketches were created during the user interface development. Click on the last image to the right to see a slide show of some of these concepts.