Thursday, August 21, 2014

A New Day, A New Menu

We've been testing a brand new menu design over the last month with a limited number of users on our Beta site. After collecting feedback, tweaking functionality, and fixing initial bugs, we are ready to unveil the new menu to all of our users.

Why the redesign?


Create an intuitive and easy-to-use navigation structure

We decided using acronyms and initialisms as menu items (AIMS, IPS, etc.) didn't provide an easy to navigate menu. New and existing users alike are often confused by what those menu items stand for, so we are moving to more descriptive, product focused verbiage. Also, the new menu better organizes settings pages, reports, and products.

Use less space so there is more room on screen for your tools

People come to ace.autosweet.com to get work done. The old menu sometimes took a lot of space on screen, which limited real estate for the tools we provide. The menu has been streamlined, and takes up far less vertical space for dealer groups.

A clean look

There is no question the old menu had an outdated look. We took this opportunity to put on a fresh coat of paint and get the look more consistent with some of our newer tools.


Some new features

  • Better Dealer Selection tool - We've consolidated the Dealer Search and Dealer Pick List into one, easy-to-use tool. It saves space on screen and allows our users to go to one place to find the dealer they need.
  • Save default page option - The Inventory Dashboard is the default page all users see when logging in to ACE. You can now control your default page by navigating to the tool of your choice and clicking "Make current page default" under the User menu header. You can also access your default page at any point by clicking the AutoSweet logo at the top left of the menu.
The new Dealer Selection tool
Saving a default page

Understanding the new menu isn't going to be very difficult. But just in case you can't find the tools your trying to access, we've created this handy graphic. It's not terrible pretty, but if you follow a line from an old menu item you will end up at its new location. Not every link has been mapped on this image, so if you have any questions or problems using the new menu, please call 614-459-3558 or email support@autosweet.com.