FileMaker UX / UI Design

Sample file for all 10 days

⁃ UI-UX Design v4.fmp12
- Credentials: admin / admin

Day 1

⁃ Understanding some of the numerous types of design work including Skeumorphism, Flat Design, and Neumorphism. What are they and how can we blend them all together?
⁃ How Design works and how to design with YOUR specific purpose in mind.
⁃ Intro to the power of icons
⁃ Intro to layout Hoarding. Don’t be a hoarder.

Day 2

- The importance of Space
- You don’t need to label everything! Your user can infer information by the way you display it.
- You want to have information before you land in a record.
- You can use position coordinates to get finer positioning

Day 3

Talking about the design mistakes that we do when we are not designers
- The biggest mistake is that we want to highlight everything
- We repeat everything, Account phones, Account Address, Account this, account that… too much
- Want to see everything in one layout. No “cabinets”
Two types of colors: The expression and the function
- Expression: to stand out, a distinction , to highlight
- Stick to one expression color.
-When it comes to functions coloring. The coloring changes the meaning, if red: bad, if green: good, etc
Fields that are there more for storage and at a later time to retrieve
- Such as phone number, address. These will not change often so we don’t need to see often Accordion style used to hide some details and simplify the design

Day 4

⁃ Group similar buttons together
⁃ Tooltips may be used but they are becoming obsolete. There is no guarantee that a user will see the tip
⁃ Optimize your work flow by putting support fields into popover menus and slides. This will help keep your layouts clean
⁃ Do not put a “Delete” button in a dangerous location. We do not want a user to accidentally delete something
⁃ Hack a popover by making the popover window transparent, placing your popover window where you want it to open, hide the button, and then use a separate “go to object” to open the popover window.
⁃ Be careful when making selections within a popover. If you click outside of the popover window, it may close without applying changes
⁃ Don’t use “new” top create a record without a “+” Icon. Be precise! Ideally you should use a verb to tell people what is going to happen when you press a button (create, delete, duplicate, print, etc.)
⁃ Helpful tip: In Layout mode, you can go View>Show>Sample Data to see how your layout would look if you were in browse mode.

Day 5

- The difference between create, new and add.
- More than 3 rows in a list is unreadable!
- You need separation to distinguish between records.
- Incorporating the Keyboard makes for a more pleasant experience
- Give feedback on what you have already done and what you’re able to do

Day 6

- How to give visual feedback to what is happening
- Why menus should be a main stay in your design
- Custom menus are the best way to give a sense of how your solution works
- Anything you do in FileMaker has a beginning, middle, an end your user experience needs to represent this
- The card style window is one of the most important developments in FileMaker
- Call Claris and tell them you want Custom Menus that are easy to setup.

Day 7

-Everything your user does should be apart of your plan
-Mandatory fields are an easy way to keep your user on track as long as you give visual feedback showing the fields are mandatory
-Simplify your UI if you have complicated scripts to do simple things you might want to take a step back
-Show not Tell!
- If you take a button away when it shouldn’t be able to be clicked you take away the need to catch for it

Day 8

-How to handle content being pasted into your fields
-Things you don't Show has much of an affect as thing you do
-Never leave a title empty it should default to untitled
-How to deal with lots of layouts you need to navigate through
-Advantages of the hamburger menu
-It isn't just about what looks good it needs to feel good as well

Day 9

-Introduces the idea of a dedicated find layout
-How to deal with finds on related tables
-A quick dive into Nicks perform find script with the debugger
-Merge fields help more make your layouts with more detail

Day 10

-You need to think outside of the box, its ok to break out of FileMaker’s expected behavior
-Card Style window is an illusion it allows you to get new context while appearing on the same layout
-Another dive into Nick’s advanced search technique teasers on what's to come
-Limit the role of your layouts
-Why your layouts should be left to right

Sample file for all 10 days

⁃ Empower your search_x3.fmp12
⁃ Nick Hunter - Projects Starter Solution - Auto Enter.fmp12
⁃ While Function.fmp12
- Credentials: admin / admin

Nick Hunter is bringing you more Lean Design tips. This course is great for intermediate and advanced FileMaker users. We hope you enjoy the new content we are bringing to you, stay tuned for more.

Day 1

In this video Nick walks through the Quick Find feature, and how extremely powerful it can be. Nick covers Quick Find limitations, uses with UUID's, script triggers to use, and more.

Day 2

On day 2 of Speeding the search Nick covers Go To Related Record (GTRR). Nick walks through how GTRR works, filtering limitations when using GTRR, Multi value selection filters for GTRR, why filter and link fields are needed when using GTRR for filtering, and more.

Day 3

Nick Covers the different ways to display filters, shows how to use A calculation to combine GTRR and Quick Find in one search field, and Caveats of Indexing Portal Filtering Techniques.

Day 1

Nick shows how to use the Arrange & Align tools in FileMaker. Nick shares the meaning behind certain colors in regards to UI/UX. Nick expresses the importance of “verticality” when building layouts.

Day 2

Nick uses scripts that are context-free to allow easier copying and pasting. Nick shows a method of pasting layout objects in the exact position they were copied from. Nick shows how to use records from a table with script details to perform scripts.

Day 1

Nick covers the basics of how Auto-Enter Calculations work, when it gets triggered, how to use Auto-Enter to create cached summaries and more.

Day 2

In Day 2 Nick talks about using Auto - Enter Calculations in imports, Hiding New windows on creation, and minimizing the number of script steps with Auto-Enter Calculations.

Discover how to build A progress bar in FileMaker using repeating fields, when to use Unstored Calculations, and working around the spacing issue with progress bars.

Nick covers all you need to know about Let Statements: the components of a Let Statement, why Let Statements are fast, using a Let Statement to replace A complex calculation, using a Let Statement for Portal Filtering, using a Let Statement for Auto-Enter Calculations, using a Let Statement to validate fields, using a Let Statement to set a variable, and lastly things to watch out for when using Let Statements.

Take a look at PSOS Speed vs Local Speed, using quick find in PSOS, and other things to keep in mind when using PSOS. There is also a section for review of Multiple Value Relationships, and how to use them to recreate a found set.

UI consistency is a universal problem when developing applications. Nick covers which Script Steps, and calculation functions will work on which platforms. See the best fonts to use for universal support, and how FileMaker handles missing fonts. Nick also talks about testing for compatibility with multiple platforms.

Sample file for all 10 days

⁃ Export Import on Server in action
- Launch Pad v3
- Lean Design Sample
- ListOf Technique
- MultiFile with Cards
- Credentials: admin / admin

Here is an overview of what the Lean Design course is all about.   This course is great for intermediate and advanced FileMaker users.   We hope you enjoy what the course has to offer.

Part 1

Lean Design is building both the interface and backend of a custom app so that the app is highly optimized.  Lean design is about building with “none obvious” techniques to create high performance custom applications.  See More

Part 2

LaunchPad Looks like it replaces FileMaker Security.  It does not.  It captures username and password and then executes a re-login.  See More

Part 3

Walk through all of Nick’s best custom functions, explore “hidden” techniques only known by a few in FileMaker’s inner circle, and learn how to play with objects in layouts to add rich new features and how to organize Schema to save time and improve layout object reusability. See More

Part 4

Walk through all of Nick’s best custom functions, explore “hidden” techniques only known by a few in FileMaker’s inner circle, and learn how to play with objects in layouts to add rich new features and how to organize Schema to save time and improve layout object reusability. See More

Part 5

A quick introduction to PSoS (Perform Script on Server) where you can walk through Nick’s PSoS debugger feature and learn how to debug such scripts and how to build light bolt speed finds using “Transfer of Found Set.” See More

Part 6

A quick introduction to PSoS (Perform Script on Server) where you can walk through Nick’s PSoS debugger feature and learn how to debug such scripts and how to build light bolt speed finds using “Transfer of Found Set.” See More

Part 7

Learn to replace long heavy scripts by smart and straightforward calculations, discover the dark side of QuickFind - the fastest feature in the entire FileMaker platform, learn to work with Auto Entry Calc in ways you couldn’t imagine possible, find out how to use “forgotten” Functions to lighten your code in an impressive manner, and learn the differences between In-Portals Filtering and Relationships (and how they work). See More

Part 8

Learn to replace long heavy scripts by smart and straightforward calculations, discover the dark side of QuickFind - the fastest feature in the entire FileMaker platform, learn to work with Auto Entry Calc in ways you couldn’t imagine possible, find out how to use “forgotten” Functions to lighten your code in an impressive manner, and learn the differences between In-Portals Filtering and Relationships (and how they work). See More

Part 9

Learn how to properly use Portal Filters.   Use the List function to help assist creating lists for finding relationships.   List Function can give you a list from items in a related table.   The List function is VERY fast and helps speed things along. See More

Part 10

The tech you use must be supported by the design you use.   You need to "think design" as a Strategy.  (plus the Q&A of the week) See More

Bonus Video 1

Originally, this was an internal video for RCC staff.   Nick created this video several days after the Lean Design Live Stream.  It was so good, that i thought i would share it with you.

Bonus Video 2

This is a great security overview to make sure that people can't hack their way into your FileMaker file.  Especially useful if you implement the assisted log-in capability of the LaunchPad file from Nick Hunter.

Bonus Video 3

Nick hunter walks you through how to transfer files from one table to another table under 5 seconds using the number technique he likes.   You will see the PSOS Export/Import script that allow this process to be so efficient.

Bonus Video 4

In this video Nick covers how to use GtRR (Go to Related Record) in its own table to get ID's from another table using a creative listof_(X) technique.