I almost missed this series except this caught my eye skimming posts:
“We were really intrigued when we heard Cognizant’s Malcolm Frank and industry guru Geoffrey Moore discuss the enterprise/consumer IT divide. They liken it to the Sunday night vs. Monday morning experience.
It goes something like this … on a typical Sunday night, we use our iPhones/iPads and interact with our friends via Facebook/Twitter etc. It is a delightful experience. Malcolm and Geoff call these environments “Systems of Engagement”. Then Monday morning arrives and we show up in the office and are subjected to applications like the Timesheet I described in the previous post. Adding to the misery is the landline phone, a gadget clearly from the previous millennium (and alien to most millennials who came of age with mobile phones).
We then asked ourselves this additional question – did any of us attend a training program, seminar or e-learning program to use the iPhone, iPad, Facebook, Twitter, etc? The answer, obviously is NO. Why then, we concluded, do users need training to use corporate IT applications!
(http://dealarchitect.typepad.com/deal_architect/2012/06/the-pursuit-of-employee-delight-part-2.html)
Let me make that question personal: Do your users require training to use your apps?
Or do any of these sound familiar?
1. Confusing navigation. There were just too many steps to reach the target screen. Developed by different groups, each application had its own multi-level menu structure. Lack of a common taxonomy further complicated usability.
2. Each screen had too many fields which frustrated users. Users had to go through several hours of training to use the key applications.
3. Some applications were slow, especially when accessed from locations far away from our data centers.
4. Each application had its own URL and required a separate login. Sometimes, one application had many URLs. Bookmarking could never keep up with this. Most importantly, new associates could never easily figure out which application was available at which URL.
5. All applications were generating huge volumes of email alerts to keep the workflow going. This resulted in tremendous e-mail overload.
Vinnie Mirchandani covers systems of engagement in five posts that I won’t attempt to summarize.
The Real Deal: Sukumar Rajagopal on a CIO’s Pursuit of Employee Delight
The Pursuit of Employee Delight – Part 2
The Pursuit of Employee Delight – Part 3
The Pursuit of Employee Delight – Part 4
The Pursuit of Employee Delight – Part 5
There is much to learn here.