So I’m pleasantly surprised to learn that my latest column in Uxmatters is getting good notices.
The title is “Why Enterprise Software Usability Matters” and in it I talk about why enterprise application usability lags behind consumer software and web site usability.
To summarize and quote myself:
Over the past twenty years, the field of user experience has been fortunate. Software and hardware product organizations increasingly have adopted user-centered design methods such as contextual user research, usability testing, and iterative interaction design. In large part, this has occurred because the market has demanded it. More than ever, good interaction design and high usability are part of the price of entry to markets.
However, there’s one area that I believe has lagged behind: the enterprise software space. I can’t tell you how many frustratingly unusable enterprise Web applications I’ve encountered during my 12 plus years in corporate America. As important as the user experience of enterprise software is to a business’s success, why isn’t its assessment usually a factor in technology selection?
Nice to learn that something I have to say resonates. After my last UXmatters article was met with the sound of chirping crickets, I was starting to worry…and I thought people would really groove to the idea that you can evaluate and measure the risk that your product will be perceived as malware by the market.
Just goes to show, you never can tell which one of your album tracks will be the hit single.
The Usability of Enterprise Software Matters :: Paul Sherman
