NAV 2017 user interface (UI) is designed to be role oriented (also called role tailored). The term role oriented means tailoring the options available to fit the user's specific job tasks and responsibilities. If user access is through one of the clients, the Role Tailored Client (RTC) will be employed. If the user access is via a custom-built client, the developer will have more responsibility to make sure the user experience is role tailored.

The first page that a user will see is the Role Center page. The Role Center page provides the user with a view of work tasks to be done; it acts as the user's home page. The home Role Center page should be tailored to the job duties of each user, so there will be a variety of Role Center page formats for any installation.

Someone whose role is focused on order entry will probably see a different RTC home page than the user whose role focuses on invoicing, even though both user roles are in what we generally think of as Sales & Receivables. The NAV 2017 RTC allows a great deal of flexibility for implementers, system administrators, managers, and individual users to configure and reconfigure screen layouts and the set of functions that are visible.

The following screenshot is the out-of-the-box Role Center for a Sales Order Processor:

The key to properly designing and implementing any system, especially a role tailored system, is the quality of the User Profile analysis done as the first step in requirements analysis. User Profiles identify the day-to-day needs of each user's responsibilities relative to accomplishing the business' goals. Each user's tasks must be mapped to individual NAV functions or elements, identifying how those tasks will be supported by the system. A successful implementation requires the use of a proven methodology. It is very important that the up-front work is done and done well. The best programming cannot compensate for a bad definition of goals.

In our exercises, we will assume the up-front work has been well done and we will concentrate on addressing the requirements defined by our project team.