AM+A designed the mental model and navigation for an application that builds and manages business operations financial information.
Essbase Applications Manager, the central product in the suite of Essbase tools, builds/configures Essbase Multi-Dimensional OLAP Databases. Arbor was upgrading their client/server product to make it more powerful and easier for financial managers to build custom financial reports and models about their company. In designing the user-interface of this centralized “hub” product, AM+A’s key challenge was to build in flexibility. Our design had to stand up to: 1) anticipated increases of complexity in future enterprise-wide networks, 2) the need to seamlessly link to various other component products, and 3) the need for our design to be easily extended to a suite of accompanying products. First, we built an overall mental model and navigational structure that gave users a complete, clear overview of their data environment and controls. Then we converted the current dialogue-driven UI (one that relies heavily on memory and abstract concepts) into a direct manipulation environment – one that gives the user continuous feedback as they build data structures and manage data objects. Posted on 30 July 2008 in Archives | No Comments » You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.