Unified Interface in Dynamics 365

November 18th, 2019 Intech Systems Dynamics 365, Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics

What is the Unified Interface?

Unified Interface in Dynamics 365 is all about cleaner user experience and a friendly interface. The new and improved UI updates the aspect and feel of the software with a uniform design that is used across all devices and Dynamics platforms.
For example, with the Unified Interface, dashboards and views are constant, no matter which module is being accessed irrespective of any devices.

Why has the Unified Interface been introduced?

The main agenda of introducing new modern UI is to deliver a consistent experience to the Dynamics 365 CE users across all devices. Another aspect of change is due to more connected and diverse apps being implemented in different scenarios. And, this makes a requirement for the apps to be designed only once and should be quick, easily accessible across various device platforms.

What are the enhanced features?

There are few notable changes in the new UI that you might have also marked.

• Navigation Tab

First and foremost, the thing you will notice the change in UI is in the navigation bar. The new UI has the navigation on the top with the menu on the left.

The new Navigation Menu is always present and easier than ever to navigate without losing the ever-elusive hover using mouse required in Web Client. It can be collapsed to create more working space in the app. In either model, the users know exactly where they are and where they can navigate to with ease.

All sitemap structural components are still part of the new menu

• Groups
• Items
• Areas

The new Navigation Bar is more at a place than ever. Branding and corporate identity are essential to any organizational culture. The improvements reduce any obstacles to brand color allowing the brand to shine via existing theme color support across the whole top Navigation Bar.

• Dashboards

The new dashboards embedded across all device types. Power BI reports now can be accessed within Dynamics 365 from mobile.  Moreover, improved charts and users can access dashboards specifically to the entity where they are working in.

Improved Timeline Control has reduced density and allows users to see all activity types in a single view. The calendar is the newest View Control – allows for a more intuitive and natural way to look at date-based record sets. Furthermore, Relationship Assistant gets its own space to help users by leveraging AI capabilities to make them more productive.

With new UI dashboards, there will not be any struggle with data range filters.

• Views and Subgrids

Based on the needs and requirements, users can adjust the screen and get the best user experience.  Similarly, views and Sub-Grids dynamically adapt to the available space changes from:

• Form factor
• Screen or Window size
• Zoom level

• New Forms

New forms will remove unnecessary colors and backgrounds. Additionally, tab navigation is on top and easily visible. Besides, SDK customization will not be hampered by the new design with column layout continue as configured.

• Business Flow

The new Business Flow Process is very compact with great improvements. It takes up less space and moreover, users can view the completed stage with the filled circles which in old UI was very complex to understand.

Unified Interface performance improvements

During its Business Applications Summit in June 2019, Microsoft highlighted a series of statistics to demonstrate how the Unified Interface improves performance and reliability. These included:

Why you should move to Unified Interface?

The new Unified Interface is a positive change to align Dynamics 365 with the Power Platforms strategy. Also, it will help your system to be on track with the latest features and enhancements. Microsoft confirmed the derogate of the legacy web interface in September 2019. It will continue to provide support until Oct 2020, but after this, it will no longer be available.
If you want to know more or to get advice on migrating to the Dynamics 365 Unified Interface, please get in touch: sales@intech-systems.com