When I'm trying to evaluate/install/manage software I sometimes feel like the software companies really don't care about my pain. They apparently think nothing of publishing pages of pre-installation notes followed by an installation with a myriad of painstaking steps that must be followed precisely or else you end up with an irrcoverable mess.
Now, sometimes they can get away with it when their products are popular enough that end users demand them -- like the Blackberry server.
But, companies that make less visible software should be careful. For example, Symantec's Corporate Antivirus product has a few notorious issues (failed uninstall cleanup, Outlook plugin issues) that aren't deal-killers in themselves. But, when an IT department looks to compare antivirus products, the idea of not having to deal with these problems can sound pretty appealing.
So, if you write software, keep in mind that end users aren't the only ones that have to use it. If you are causing the admins pain, you're opening the door for your competitors.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Usability and the Cloud
I would argue that one of the benefits of the move towards cloud computing is improved usability. As more data is stored in the cloud, people need to manage it less, and fewer tasks mean more usable solutions.
Perhaps it's easier to illustrate with a "for instance":
Say you've got some newer computer users all using POP email into Outlook. Now they get new computers. Throw in multiple email accounts, some people sharing email addresses, and you've got yourself a real set of issues for most people.
Now, if you these same people had been using Gmail, hosted Exchange, or something like that, this process would have been a painless, 1-2-3 experience.
I'm not pretending that this ease of use doesn't come with some tradeoffs like ownership of data, service availability, and dependency on 3rd party systems.
But if you think about it, are most computer users more likely to have a system failure with inadequate backups or have a cloud provider go out of business? Delving into these issues is a topic for another time, but I hope you get my points.
For more advanced users, this may be an issue, but for a lot of people, removing system tasks from their scope of responsibility is a welcome change -- one that's worth the other risks that come with cloud services.
Perhaps it's easier to illustrate with a "for instance":
Say you've got some newer computer users all using POP email into Outlook. Now they get new computers. Throw in multiple email accounts, some people sharing email addresses, and you've got yourself a real set of issues for most people.
Now, if you these same people had been using Gmail, hosted Exchange, or something like that, this process would have been a painless, 1-2-3 experience.
I'm not pretending that this ease of use doesn't come with some tradeoffs like ownership of data, service availability, and dependency on 3rd party systems.
But if you think about it, are most computer users more likely to have a system failure with inadequate backups or have a cloud provider go out of business? Delving into these issues is a topic for another time, but I hope you get my points.
For more advanced users, this may be an issue, but for a lot of people, removing system tasks from their scope of responsibility is a welcome change -- one that's worth the other risks that come with cloud services.
About this Blog
I've been working with computers as long as I can remember. As a kid I remember using Wordstar on my dad's IBM 8088.
I remember the piece of paper that went over the function keys to help remind you that if you needed to underline something you would need to press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F7 or something like that.
Looking back, it's crazy to think that we used to think of that as an usable solution, but that's where technology was at the time -- that's all we had.
Doing anything with a computer involved having some significant knowledge, or knowing someone who knew how to do it.
Usually the "nerd" would begin their explanation with the phrase "all you have to do is...", and then would follow a series of technical steps that they thought were very simple, but that any non-expert would have very little chance of figuring out on their own.
Over the years, as technology has improved, the "nerds" are still around to give out these explanations, but as improvements in usability have moved forward, complicated steps to solving problems have become increasingly socially unacceptable.
Over time, I've come to believe that the reasons for a lot of usability problems aren't that it would take a lot of work to do things differently. Mostly, it's just that IT people (myself included) are like most people in that we forget that other people think differently than us. We are so used to designing solutions focused on how the computers work, we forget that the more important thing is to design thinking about how people work.
This blog is really just recording my journey trying to make the solutions I help design more usable, and therefore more effective.
I'll have my opinions, and I hope you as readers will share yours as well. Hopefully we can all learn how to create better solutions.
I remember the piece of paper that went over the function keys to help remind you that if you needed to underline something you would need to press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+F7 or something like that.
Looking back, it's crazy to think that we used to think of that as an usable solution, but that's where technology was at the time -- that's all we had.
Doing anything with a computer involved having some significant knowledge, or knowing someone who knew how to do it.
Usually the "nerd" would begin their explanation with the phrase "all you have to do is...", and then would follow a series of technical steps that they thought were very simple, but that any non-expert would have very little chance of figuring out on their own.
Over the years, as technology has improved, the "nerds" are still around to give out these explanations, but as improvements in usability have moved forward, complicated steps to solving problems have become increasingly socially unacceptable.
Over time, I've come to believe that the reasons for a lot of usability problems aren't that it would take a lot of work to do things differently. Mostly, it's just that IT people (myself included) are like most people in that we forget that other people think differently than us. We are so used to designing solutions focused on how the computers work, we forget that the more important thing is to design thinking about how people work.
This blog is really just recording my journey trying to make the solutions I help design more usable, and therefore more effective.
I'll have my opinions, and I hope you as readers will share yours as well. Hopefully we can all learn how to create better solutions.
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