Pop-up window option as part of automation to keep human in the loop
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Christoph Rosenthal
Many times the magic of automations in the background leaves users puzzled about what happened. A basic notification pop-up window that appears when an automation has been triggered by the user action could show insightful information on what happened and, if the window was equipped with the option to paste links, could lead the user to the place of interest in the system where automatically created or updated records reside.
Example: I move a record from sales stage 4 to 5. This status change triggers an automation that generates a contract and several invoices in the background. The pop-up window could elegantly display the links to views that show the recently created invoices and contracts so that the user can jump there directly.
A similar feature already exists in the forms where you can add a callout banner for information purposes; think buttons/links with suggested next actions. Something like that which could be configured as part of the automation (if automation successful, display popup - popup window can be edited as rich text field in the automation configuration) would improve the keep the human in the loop capabilities and significantly improve the user experience.
Jon Darbyshire
Hiya Christoph Rosenthal, thanks for this post! I have a few more questions for you:
- Can you provide more examples of the types of information you'd like to see in the pop-up window when an automation is triggered?
- Are there any specific automations where you feel this feature would be particularly beneficial?
- How would you like the system to handle multiple automations being triggered at once? Should each automation have its own pop-up window, or should all information be consolidated into one?
C
Christoph Rosenthal
Jon Darbyshire
- Types of information in the pop-up window when an automation is triggered
- success message to users about successfully created/updated records or workflows
- links to views of interest to follow up on previously performed action / view results / take next necessary action
- warning before actually triggering the automation, and the option to press a button to confirm, which then triggers the automation
- error message when an automation encountered an error, for example due to missing data in a field that still needs to be filled in. I currently have a process where users receive an email about missing data in fields that are set as a condition for an automation
- option to put in the fields and the before-and-after-field-values that were changed by the automation
For all of those I imagine the pop-up window to be an optional add-on to the automation.
- Create new record, update record - If enriched by rich text pop-up windows (perhaps even configurable buttons), those have the highest potential to elevate the user experience to a level where users could be guided through end-to-end processes. Offering next available actions/views increases productivity and efficiency. Faster adoption for new users who might not even need an onboarding because the user guide / documentation is baked into the workflow for intuitive access.
- Each individual automation could have a section where you activate / deactivate the pop-up window for that particular automation. If multiple automations that all have pop-up windows are triggered, all pop-up windows appear layered on top of one another in a window whose top bar indicates the number of pop-up messages that were generated. Those can be clicked away by the user (and perhaps they get stored in the notification center as well).