Implementing a new system is much like being an explorer – taking your company towards new opportunities and experiences. Imagine being at the forefront of your organization’s digital transformation expedition.  Perhaps your organization is embarking on an initial digital transformation voyage, or perhaps you are looking to add some needed improvements to existing applications and processes.  In either case, the user interface (UI) of your applications is crucial for success. Beyond aesthetics, it’s a bridge to engagement, efficiency, and growth. It’s not just about pretty buttons and appealing colors; it’s about crafting an experience that resonates, engages, and empowers.

But as every pioneer knows, the path isn’t without challenges. The world of Content Services UI is complex, with pitfalls and opportunities in every corner.  

This is where our journey begins. We’ll navigate through our top best practices, drawing on a wealth of expertise and experiences, equipping you with the tools to make informed decisions. Whether you’re a seasoned digital explorer or setting foot on this path for the first time, our insights will light the way.  Let’s begin.

Search UI Best Practices

A fast, efficient, and easy to use Search interface is crucial for any content services application.  When users can efficiently search and find the documents and content they need, they will have more time to focus on doing their work rather than finding their work.  As you’re evaluating the search UI, keep the following best practices in mind.

Don’t be enticed by the allure of a repository-wide “google-like” search. This sprawling approach risks drowning users in an avalanche of irrelevant results and does not scale for repositories that grow to hundreds of millions or billions of documents. Also, avoid presenting an overly complex search form that is not streamlined for most user’s needs.

Instead, focus search on specific targets. Ensure that the search experience considers types, metadata, and aspects, delivering results quickly and efficiently. Align the user’s context and role with streamlined search options, allowing for quick and pertinent retrieval. 

Beyond the initial search, empowerment reigns. Allow users to effortlessly filter results or modify and re-run searches without losing their context. Personalization is key – empower users to shape their results view, like an artist curating a gallery.

Expand user’s efficiency and productivity by leveraging advanced search features that turn the search UI into a lightweight reporting tool. Also, don’t forget to leverage automated searches in other areas of the UI.  Ensure that the UI is capable of automatically surfacing relevant content to the user based on their role and context.

If you are feeling really adventurous, look to enhance your search with generative AI technologies to provide document summaries, support natural language searching and Q&A.  Keep an eye on the Docuvela website and blog as we dive more into these topics in future posts.

Document Organization and Viewing Best Practices

Given that application users are likely spending the bulk of their time working with many related documents within the system, it is important to ensure that the folder and document views provide a superior user experience.

When thinking of repository folders, especially in cases where organizations are moving from a “shared drive” paradigm to a modern content services application, it’s important to resist the allure of relying on a repository-wide folder tree as the primary method for users to find and organize content.  While the folder tree approach is the only option on a network shared drive, there are many benefits to hiding the folder tree from the user and relying on automated code to handle the folder structure.  Instead, embrace the power of search and relationships as the primary method to guide users to the correct documents and information.

Leverage context wherever possible to streamline and personalize the interface based on a user’s context and role.  In addition, leverage context to show actions prominently.  Do not bury actions for the user in menus and sub-menus.  Additionally, context can be utilized to provide for multi-perspective viewing, side-by-side document display, and to surface related folders and documents based on the user’s role.

When viewing documents and videos, leverage an advanced viewer.  The chosen viewer should amplify user engagement and efficiency by supporting all necessary formats seamlessly. While it’s possible to utilize free tools to display common formats, the best viewers contain features that leverage annotations, redactions, transformation, and collaborative features to boost user productivity.

Adding Content

When thinking about how users load content into the system, you should consider two primary goals.  

First, ensure that all relevant content actually is stored in the system.  Users should not be working around the system and instead storing important documents and content in an external system like OneDrive or Google Drive.  

Second, once content is added to the system, ensure that it is easily found and does not get lost or duplicated.

Our best practices around adding content center on these two primary objectives.  First, we recommend that document indexing (setting the type and metadata) occur during the import process. While it can be tempting to utilize a simple “drag and drop” import process, users are unlikely to set important type and metadata attributes, making documents harder to find and leading to a messy repository.  Instead, leverage an easy to use UI that requires document indexing during import and displays the document to the user while setting metadata.

Like in other areas discussed above, the UI should leverage context and user role to limit user decisions, automatically populate metadata where possible, and automatically file the content to the correct repository location.

Finally, a number of our best practices center around smartly surfacing content automatically based on context.  It’s possible to create context during the import process in many situations.  One simple example would be to ingest emails and related attachments to create parent/child relationships in the repository.

Workflow

Workflow is often an important component of a content services application, focusing users on tasks for mission-critical processes that may span multiple areas of the organization.  It’s important to ensure a top notch workflow UI to increase user adoption and efficiency.

Interestingly, the first workflow best practice is to take a step back to evaluate business processes and consider whether or not advanced Business Process Management (BPM) tools are needed.  In certain situations, a combination of metadata and dashboards may be enough.  This approach may save your organization considerable time, effort, and licensing fees to implement advanced BPM tools.

When advanced BPM tools are required, our remaining best practices ensure that your organization will get the most out of the workflow tools deployed.  First, design process templates to utilize flexible and dynamic business rules so that they can be reused and can react to changing business requirements.  Make it easy for users to start the workflow, and make workflow-status clarity a top requirement.  Workflow should not be a “black box”.

To maintain efficient workflows, the system should incorporate features like task delegation, reassignment, inbox proxies, reminders for pending tasks, and automated escalations for unresolved tasks. These features help prevent bottlenecks by allowing authorized users to take action, ensuring tasks aren’t stalled, and enabling timely completion.

Summary

We hope the Content Services UI best practices series has been helpful as you navigate the digital transformation waters and evaluate new or existing applications within your organization.  We’d love to hear from you here or on LinkedIn.  Are there any best practices you’ve seen implemented in content services applications you’d like to share?  Or perhaps any anti-patterns you would caution others to avoid?  Let us know!

If you’re evaluating a new or existing content services application, be sure to contact us to discuss your particular application needs. We’d love to hear from you!