User Friendly?

If you are new to IFS, are used to touch screen phones and tablets, then yes, I think the Aurena UI will feel familiar and there is no real comparison if the user hasn’t experienced IEE.  If you are an existing IFS user, very familiar with IEE, then the transition is hard and my personal feeling is that the general user will find it very not friendly, especially coupled with some of the key UI features that are deprecated.  (conditional formatting, SQL subquery searches, limited advanced search capability, etc)  - it becomes a really hard sell that it is user friendly.

It definitely wasn’t designed to make upgrading easy, whether it is worth the trade off for mobility and other features it is supposed to bring. I’ll comment in a few months when we finally get our hands on an uplifted Cloud version of our database…..my two cents.

We are implementing IFS and using Aurena as our only interface. The developers and consultants go between the two systems, but the employees stay in Aurena. We have not launched Lobbies yet, that will help. I am an ME and do Routings, Structures and assist with the shop. Our old system (NAV 2004, with tons of custom scripts) had an ITEM Card, and from the Item card, you could click into history, orders, supplier, basically all information about the item. It was a very simple system, actually way too simple. I’m sure in time IFS will be good, right now, we are struggling with scrap and replenishment to the lines, MRB activities amongst other issues. There are just a lot of steps to perform what should be native and run like macros in my opinion. Having to to into reservation entries should be part of the program, not the interface.

“There are just a lot of steps to perform what should be native and run like macros in my opinion. “

That is exactly my concern. The Aurena UI while scalable to different screens just requires a lot more steps to do the same function.  The loss of ability to automate things directly as we have in V9 where we are now is going to be a huge problem for us.  But if we don’t do something, there will likely be a rebellion from the users given what I perceive will be a huge increase in the clicks and movements to do a task.

I like Aurena and find it easier to navigate in. We are teaching our employees to use Aurena and don’t even show the IEE side. I have a hard time finding what I want in IEE and it is very frustrating. I learned how to use Aurena first, so that might be why I support it over IEE. 

Usability and user experience (something being user friendly) is tricky things, one of the reasons is that it highly depends on who you, the user are. Something that seems usable to one person might be very hard to use for another person. To some people IFS will be easy to use and fit the goals that they have and for others it will not be a great user experience. We are working to get to know who you, our users are, so that we can create solutions that gives you a better user experience. But it is a process that takes time.