As shops move (like the rest of society) to using tablets, instead of PCs, then screen size will be an issue (21in monitors cannot be described as handheld devices!) I also think it will still be quite a long time before tablets grow beyond 10.4in screen size due to manufacturing costs, but the lower costs 10.4in tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab A will proliferate very quickly as standard, low-cost devices for use in retail.

From our perspective, we are planning to deploy up to 10 tablets in our workshop area later this year, that will be directly fixed to the mechanic’s bike stand, for them to directly interact with it whilst doing the bike safety checks. This is a system we are developing ourselves on a web-based system that will enable us to maintain a database of all bikes we refurbish and service and will form the foundation of our warranty and service guarantees. As the mechanic will have this on their stand, they will be able to access CitrusLime’s Workshop module also, which brings up questions about its usability.

There is current known problem with using the Workshop Module on 15in laptops, where part of the Job List table is cut-off on the right hand side (see 15in screenshot):

What this illustrates is that the table cannot be scrolled left/right to reveal the covered over information. This is worse on the 10.4in screen (see 10in screenshot):

Whilst at this size the table can be scrolled left/right, it would be better if the table formatting was more compact and this would probably enable it to fit a 10in screen. Also, apart from being able to do horizontal scroll, it would help if the table itself rather than the window was able to scroll vertically, so that the table headings remain visible at all times.

The information that is on this table is not as informative as it needs to be as it is far too spread out and cluttered. Instead of taking up so much space with the Order Number, hyperlinks to diary or tag, three dates columns is too many, etc., a simplified view that is more along the lines of the Excel spreadsheet with the use of colour in the status columns, with each status having a different colour that indicates meaning (e.g. traffic light green = good to go, amber = paused, red = stuck & needs sorting). The table needs buttons to filter so that you can see just ‘current pipeline’, individual queues (triage/quote, awaiting customer decision, awaiting repair, etc) with the ability to promote/demote individual jobs within a queue in order adjust job priorities. The date on which the customer was last contacted about their job needs to be added into the table so we can properly manage customer interaction, expectations and updates (a key quality of service feature).

There should be a simple ‘double-click’ means to open the job from anywhere on a row to see the full details of that particular job instead of having to spend ages trying to locate the job on a very cluttered diary (critical for our Manager when a customer phones on spec to query when their bike will be ready). There needs to be a means to ’suspend’ jobs (e.g. pause an entire contract that may have multiple jobs in the queues) and hide them to allow focus on non-suspended jobs. Also completed jobs should be removed from the list and only shown is selected, with the most recent completed jobs (e.g. customer has collected the bike and it is no longer in store) at the top.