I'll be honest, I don't read enough in my own field. An engaging and demanding job, two small children, and a recent cross-country move have really cut into my reading time.
With that said, here's who & what I've been reading recently on the Web...
Continue reading "A Small Sampling of Online Usability Resources" »
Just got back from UPA 2005 in Montreal. It was the best UPA conference since I started going in 2000.
In the last entry I argued that enterprise software often falls short of the mark when enterprise vendors don’t pay sufficient attention to the specific wants and needs of the intended users.
I claimed that this happens because enterprise software vendors don't set goals for the learnability and usability of their systems, and because the enterprises themselves don’t hold vendors to high enough standards of application learnability, usability, and efficiency.
In this entry I'll relate some case studies where negative outcomes could have been prevented. I'll also discuss why the factors that contribute to these poor outcomes seem to be persistent.
In the next post, I'll provide examples of how to justify usability for enterprise software, and discuss a model for creating and deploying enterprise software that will result in more positive outcomes.
Continue reading "Why Users Hate Enterprise Software (Pt. 2)" »
Enterprise software products are complex, powerful tools. This complexity is one of the reasons businesses sometimes don't fully realize a positive return on investment from these products.
For enterprise employees who must use the enterprise application, their complexity poses a considerable challenge. When an application is deployed, users are expected to learn the new system, integrate it into their existing work processes, and become proficient enough to allow the organization to realize the system’s full benefits. Far too often, however, enterprise employees find these new systems hard to learn, hard to master, and difficult to integrate into existing processes.
Continue reading "Why Users Hate Enterprise Software (Pt. 1)" »
There is one constant across almost all office-based work environments: the office worker is subject to innumerable interruptions and distractions. Yet when we test software and web sites for usability, we always seek to minimize interruptions and distractions. Should we?
Continue reading "Interruptions: Nuisance or Valuable Data Source?" »
The Usability Professionals' Association (www.usabilityprofessionals.org) is organizing World Usability Day.
According to the UPA, the goal of World UDay is "to promote the fields of usability engineering and user-centered design. We aim to do this by encouraging, organizing, and sponsoring activities at the local level around the globe, all occurring on November 3, 2005."
More here.
Welcome to UsabilityBlog. Will this site make a mark? Time will tell.
|
Filed Under: 
