InApp UX dilemma with navigation pane strategies

[molegris]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading a lot of posts and it seems like I'm facing a limitation in Power BI App.  What I want to do is just not possible 😞 

So instead, I'm gonna ask the community What would you do in that situation?

My situation involve a dilemma between two designs that have each there UX flaws.

• The current design offers a great user experience but the navigation menu is heavy and confusion, and the ALM is a nightmare.
• The target design provides clear and simple navigation menu, and isolate the help pages which is great for ALM.  But the user experience sucks.

I'll give more explanations about pros and cons later but for now let's see the usecase :

Let say I’m viewing the Perseverance>Vue d’ensemble report and I need help.  I click on the question mark button (upper-right).

• Currently behavior (red arrow) : It brings me the help page that is inside the same report; And the help page has a BACK button that brings me right back to the page I was on.
• Desired behavior (green arrow) : The help button should bring the user to related page located in the central help report; and should offer an option to bring the user back to the report it was viewing before asking for help.

Pros and Cons :

While the navigation between the viewing page and the help page is seamless in the current design, the navigation pane is heaver and confusion (see image below). And the reason I said it's a nightmare from an ALM perspective is because the report object have to be editted (then re-tested) every time there a modification in the help page; something has ridiculous as a missplaced coma will trigger a new code version of the report!

The new design fixes the Cons for the current design but due to Power BI limitations, it's impossible to navigate directly the related help page when you click on the (?) button at the top of a report.  Actually, it is possible... with URL. But that solution has 2 majors flaws :

1. It is not possible to send offer a BACK button to send the user back to its original report.

2. Use the help a few times and your browser will look like this... (because it opens a new tab every time) :

What would you do in a similar situation ?

Which of the 2 design would you go for ? 

Any good ideas for a third option ?

Thank you,

--mo

[lbendlin · Accepted solution]

Two words - Occam's razor.

Have you done usability tests with some of your users? Do they care enough about this to warrant you spending time on it?  Or is your time better spent improving the report insights?

[molegris]

Hi @lbendlin ,

Philosopher and wise, you are!

No usability tests were done. However, the PO did hire a UI/UX consultant who pointed out the navigation pane heaviness and confusing arrangement as a major irritant.  I considered the consulting part as an appropriate due diligence from the PO’s part, and I accepted the request.  This might have been my mistake!  But I don’t regret the new design that much because of the significant gain for IT (because of the ALM improvement).

One thing I’m almost certain about, is that if that was brought to the stake holders, the business case would not have pass the test of cost vs value, since important dashboards are still in the pipeline… but we don’t have this kind of process here.

Thank you for the reflection you triggered this morning; it did help me be at peace with it, and move one… for that, I’ll go ahead and accept your answer !  😊

Have a nice day,

--mo