The user experience is paramount in the choice and adoption of the Alfresco Digital Platform and any Content Service Platform. Many collaboration platforms fail because business users are presented with a default layout that is neither configured to their needs nor reveals many of the offers that the platform can offer.

Companies still struggle with user adoption. In implementing Content Services technology, we fundamentally change the way an individual or group does their job. This is why user adoption is broadly affected by issues of accessibility and experience. Software adoption is a matter of habits and, as humans, we don’t like to change our habits. User adoption depends heavily on the way people interact with a new platform, a new application, or a new framework, especially at the early stages.

But when an innovative platform, such as Alfresco, offers more than one user interface, which one should we use? And more importantly why?

At Xenit, we have developed Alfred GUI, which includes two user interfaces, for web or desktop users.

1. Alfresco ADF – Emmet Brickowsky 

At the end of 2018, Alfresco launched the new Alfresco Digital Workspace, powered by ADF (Application Development Framework), a client-side JavaScript API, and a set of Angular components.

Utilizing the flexibility of the Alfresco Application Development Framework, the new Digital Workspace will help companies create experiences their users will delight in. Through hundreds of reusable, localized, and responsive UI components, there’s no limit to the tailored experiences developers can create – and the speed with which they can move. (Alfresco Innovates with the New Digital Workspace).

If you are running Alfresco 5.2 or higher, ADF is a valid option for you. You can use ready-to-use components, leveraging the popularity of the Angular framework and community.

Generally speaking, ADF is a framework, a Lego brick, designed for developers that can rapidly build responsive and engaging web applications.

Ready to become a Master Builder with ADF?

2. Alfred finder – The white rabbit 

As reported in the article “Do workers still waste time searching for information”, employees spend 1.8 hours every day—9.3 hours per week, on average—searching and gathering information. Put another way, businesses hire 5 employees but only 4 shows up to work; the fifth is off searching for answers, but not contributing any value.”

By simplifying the ability to search, retrieve, process, and archive documents from anywhere in the enterprise, document management solutions, such as Alfresco, can enhance employee collaboration and speed up the decision-making process. Conscious about the problem of finding the right documents, Xenit offers a user-centric web interface, Alfred Finder, to make searching a simple and rewarding experience. Alfred Finder combines Alfresco meta-data and business properties with Apache Solr technology. http://www.youtube.com/embed/cn5vyovD8sA

Alfred Finder is the right choice for your organization if you don’t have time to search for documents but just need to find and retrieve them. We deliver results in less than 3 seconds, by extending Alfresco’s searchability, making navigation easier, and the Alfresco tool users will use.

Stop wasting your time searching for information, start finding them!

 3. Alfred Desktop – Mr Robot

If you care about powerful and elegant functionalities, and not about the fancy user interfaces, Alfred Desktop is for you. Your mission is to empower Alfresco users, and speed up their daily operations, with something that simply works and is easy to use. 

Alfred Desktop is a windows native Alfresco user interface. It looks like Microsoft and acts as a shared drive, with full metadata support, Outlook integration, drag and drop, personalization, and integration with other applications.

The interface has been developed as a response to an ever returning requirement from the end-users of Alfresco, to have Alfresco functionality in the Microsoft Environment better known as the shared drives. Change management is one of the most challenging elements for humans. Adding something to an existing way of working is easier than having to start using a new tool and a new way of working.

Want to know how to accelerate Alfresco user adoption?