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Is your software simple and usable?
There was an interesting opinion piece at Sandhill.com last week titled “Simplicity: What’s Next in Business Software” by Anthony Deighton of QlikTech.
Anthony pointed out that the gap between what software users experience in their workplace and in the rest of their life is widening while the line between work and home continues to blur. Business users are starting to expect that the applications they use at work be as clear, user-friendly, intuitive and simple as the other software they use.
The bottom line is that enterprise software vendors must “simplify or die” by embracing a philosophy of simplicity or risk getting left behind in the future by innovative and emerging vendors.
There are several characteristics of “simple” software that Anthony lists in his piece, including:
- Continue to offer robustness – “simple” is not the same as “lite”
- Focus on the user – enterprise software vendors need to focus on the user for a change
- Revamp the value chain – make sure you pick partner vendors and service providers who embrace the simplicity vision
- Deliver a fast sales and implementation process – the product must be easy for users, but also deliver quick value to the business
- Relentlessly pursue simplicity – you have to keep focusing on making your product usable and faster to deploy
Check out the full article and complete discussion thread from this link.
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Laurie Gray from OneSpring (an iRise Strategic Partner) shared her thoughts on Rich Internet Applications or RIA during the monthly Catalyze webcast yesterday.
She started out with the RIA “elevator pitch” from Tony MacDonell who writes the InsideRIA blog:
“Rich Internet Applications are software programs that are designed to run above the level of the operating system, and are universally available to you, where ever you may be when you need to use them. You can run them on any computer, in any context. Run them in the web browser, on the desktop, or even on mobile devices as well. Rich Internet Applications offer powerful user interfaces, that allow you to work or play in ways that are familiar, intuitive, and exciting. They leverage the best of the web, without sacrificing the power of the desktop.”
She also shared the origins of the term Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) which first appeared in an essay by Jesse James Garrett from adaptive path in February 2005.
According to Laurie, the five myths of RIA are:
- RIAs provide the perfect vehicle for splashy sites
- they are also amazing tools for complex, transactional, data-driven sites too
- RIAs bring people-centered design to information workspaces
- most users will not care how the app was built, but if they have a bad experience, they won’t come back
- If you’ve designed websites, you can design RIAs
- that’s not necessarily true
- It’s just like our software, of course our users will understand it
- think again — there are lots of ways to do things
- RIAs provide a better user experience than traditional HTML
- it depends — and sometimes it can be a worse experience
Laurie wrapped up with a demo of her favorite RIA websites and a list of valuable resources before answering a spirited round of questions.
The presentation slides embedded below and webcast recording are available from the Catalyze Community. Some of the questions from the webcast are also answered in Laurie’s Catalyze blog.
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Are you having trouble communicating with your stakeholders? Do you want to improve how you gather requirements?
If so, you should join the Catalyze Community monthly webcast on February 14th with Barbara Carkenord from B2T Training as she explains how to design a sure-fire strategy for developing a communication plan.
Both business analysts and usability professionals will be more effective when they think ahead about how best to communicate with their stakeholders. This presentation provides attendees with a communication planning technique that can easily be used on any project.
Webcast Details:
- Date and Time — Thursday, February 14 at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern
- Registration — Sign up at this link
- Recording – If you miss the live broadcast, the recording and presentation will be posted in Catalyze by February 18
Barbara is the President of B2T Training and has over 20 years experience in business analysis. Barbara has an MBA from University of Michigan and is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP).
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If you are a usability fan or just want to learn more about the key topics in usability, you need to check out the article on “30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of” from Smashing Magazine.
The exhaustive list includes definitions for 30 usability issues, including my favorites — the Baby-Duck-Syndrome and the Zeigarnik Effect.
-7±2 Principle
-2-Second-Rule
-3-Click-Rule
-80/20 Rule (The Pareto principle)
-Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design
-Fitts’ Law
-Inverted Pyramid
-Satisficing
-Baby-Duck-Syndrome
-Banner-Blindness
-Cliffhanger-Effect (Zeigarnik-Effect)
-Gestalt principles of form perception
-The Self-Reference Effect
-Eye-Tracking
-Fold
-Foveal viewport (Foveal area)
-Gloss
-Graceful Degradation (Fault-tolerance)
-Granularity
-Hotspot
-Legibility
-Minesweeping
-Mystery-Meat Navigation (MMN)
-Physical consistency
-Progressive Enhancement (PE)
-Readability
-User-centered design (UCD)
-Vigilance (sustained attention)
-Walk-Up-And-Use Design
-Wireframe
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