Over the last two years (since the LexisNexis acquisition) there have been many new eyes on Time Matters, primarily from within the newly formed “mid-management” tier. From this new perspective, Time Matters was seen as having an outdated “look and feel”, being overly complicated and having an unnecessarily steep learning curve. This perception led to one of the most significant changes to the Time Matters user interface perhaps since Time Matters version 3 was released in 1999. User interface, in software design terms, takes into account the entire user experience. For the 9.0 release we decided to focus on three specific philosophies: 1) improve the overall look and feel 2) flattening the option and action interfaces and 3) simplifying the main record type data entry. Simplifying data entry technically began when we strategically made the decision to add new wizards for the first release of Practice Advantage which coincided with Time Matters 8. But several other items were added in Time Matters 9 to continue this effort. Of these three areas, the most invasive (by far) was #1, the overall look and feel.

Over the next several weeks I will take an in-depth look at Time Matters 9. We’ll dive into the new features and explore ways to utilize them to the fullest potential. I’ll keep the conversation unique, interesting and relevant to the Practice Management Community with personal insight and knowledge of Time Matters and the product development team.