Tuesday February 7, 2006

It’s 2006. Experiences drive Technology. Not the other way around.

The explosion of new Web2.0 companies and services continues to produce steadily better interfaces at exponential rates. Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t figure out some new way to do something we couldn’t before. And if you can’t find the application that works exactly like you want it to, it’s not all that difficult to hobble it together with various libraries, components, and languages perfect for rapid prototyping. Or just use something like Ning! Whatever your interest in web technologies, it’s an exciting time.

Unfortunately, all of these advances seem to have been lost on enterprise applications.

Enterprise applications seem to be frozen in a time where technology still drives the experience. Out-of-the-box enterprise apps equals out-of-my-mind frustration. But how it got this way is understandable (and more importantly recoverable). In an effort to be all things to all people, packaged software implementations have competed by adding more and more features, with negative impact to the end user experience. We now have bloated, senseless apps that work in ways contrary to web application conventions and (more to the point) contrary to how people think and operate. I’ve only recently been thrown back into this world, via our recent alignment with Geniant, and subsequent conversations with friends working in these archaic environments. I have one friend in particular who works on payroll systems for the government – you don’t even want to ask what technologies they’re still using….

But enough complaining.

I see this as a huge opportunity. A chance to bring enterprise applications into the present and onto the next exciting phase of emotional and persuasive interfaces. Or whatever is next.

Partly spurred on Jeremy’s ‘makeover’ post (and Jared’s too!), and partly motivated by daily exposure to our newly adopted intranet (a certain popular software package), I’ve decided to describe how things could be. And provide a fruitful outlet for my frustration.

A not so simple survey
The following screenshot is [a section of] the page I landed on after completing a simple survey asking if I will be attending the next Q1 partner meeting:

First off, what’s with all the extra navigation? And why would I want to respond to the survey—didn’t I just do that? And would I really want to (in this context) export the results? No.

But I was curious about how many people would be in attendance, so I clicked on (yes, that’s a link!) “Show all responses”. Here’s what I got:

Does anyone find this useful?

I might be curious about who’s coming or not, but I’m not going to click on 70+ individual names to get that information. It would make more sense to get that kind of information within the context of ‘who responded Yes’ or ‘who responded No’. And why do I want to know when they modified their response? Seriously.

I backed up to the previous screen and clicked on “Show a graphical summary of responses” (“graphical response?”)

Ah, now this is useful. Most everyone will be coming. Now if only I could only view who won’t be able to make it…

So, that’s my context of use. 3 different screens that could really be consolidated to 1 simple screen. Too much irrelevant information. Unattractive design. Etc.

Here is my ‘overhauled’ version:

This version:

• Emphasizes survey results through, visual cues, contrast and color
• Has an overall more appealing aesthetics
• Consolidates 3 (unnecessary) screens into one very effective screen
• Doesn’t significantly change the technology—just the presentation
• Removes unnecessary or distracting information (export function)
• Minimizes less important information (when survey was created)
• Hides some information until it is requested (eg details)
• Removes actions no longer applicable (responds to survey)

Oh yeah, in keeping with Jeremy’s theme, this only took me about 45 minutes to mock up.

Enjoy!