Screen Real Estate

[iscon]

I am terribly sorry but I simply can't understand why so much screen real estate is wasted with insignificant information at the most prominent place. I hoped that v4 will bring an improvement but it didn't

[alasdaircr]

+1

I really think the default theme needs a bit of an overhaul.

[yuri]

This area will be filled with Activities, History and Tasks once you save the entry. What you suggest? To show 3 column layout when create and switch to 2 for existing records? I disagree.

[iscon]

UI design is a bitch - we all know that. But since I am talking to real people/users on an everyday basis I think I know pretty well what they want. Here's a small list:

As much important information as possible ABOVE the fold
As little scrolling as possible
Three columns YES - wherever possible
Unimportant or less frequently used information available but not prominently displayed.

That means translated into UI design:
Tabs, sliding (from the side) or pop up panels, foldable panels
Panels rearrangable remembering user settings

Ideally (IMHO because I am not a designer either) we should have a 3 columns design for the main screen (detail as well as edit), followed by panels (also full width) for history, activities stream and other relations. All panels can be moved to one or more tabs, stream could be a panel or a popup. If a tab is shown then the most important information of the main screen should be on top (account name, contact name etc)

With all the due respect: The panels to the right are useless because you can't see anything anyways.

Regarding the picture: Here I have only the barest minimum of information filled but ecxept for a bunch of frames I don't see much. Even if I scroll down I don't even see the full subjects of the emails let alone any snippets of text.

Don't get me wrong - I appreciate what you are doing but more often than not the wrapping is equally if not more important than the content.

[yuri]

I use CRM for our business and for me Activities, History and Assigned user is more important information than any other field of account record. If we move panels to the bottom for me it will become much less convenient.

[Ryan_WHR]

What if we added a tab option in each record that displayed a related record from a different module.
We could use the related tab to edit details of the related module

[Ryan_WHR]

Have we considered the tab optional as a viable solution to this problem.
Many other CRM's use this method in the entities layout

[SpeedBullet]

Perhaps making the segments "draggable" would be better. It would allow the user to choose the position of the boxes. E.g. with a pencil icon on the top right "edit layout", this makes all boxes draggable and when you're done, click "save" or whatever and you're done. But I'm rather satisfied with the current position of the boxes. But for example I'd prefer the "contacts" to be more visible at the top of the page in the "accounts" detail screen. So I'd drag it up.

[bandtank]

Have we considered the tab optional as a viable solution to this problem.
Many other CRM's use this method in the entities layout

The option to put that information in a tab would be really nice. I have no use for any of the panels, so hiding them would be preferable.